reStructuredText and Sphinx

The Traffic Server documentation source files are written using reStructuredText (RST) markup. This is a plain-text format intended to be easily readable both in its source and final rendered forms. While not entirely dissimilar to other plain text markup formats like Markdown, RST provides additional functionality for defining internal links between documents, producing tables of contents, and indices. Additionally, RST works in hand with Sphinx for providing advanced features such as markup domains, of which this documentation makes extensive use.

Both reStructuredText and Sphinx have official documentation resources which detail their full capabilities and all markup options, as well as methods of extending them with custom markup. This section will explain the most common markup features used, but the following resources may be consulted for further details.

• reStructuredText Markup Specification

• Sphinx Documentation Generator

• RST Primer by Sphinx