GitBook is a command line tool (and Node.js library) for building beautiful programming books and exercises using GitHub/Git and Markdown. You can see an example: Learn Javascript.
GitBook can be installed from NPM using:
$ npm install gitbook -g
You can serve a repository as a book using:
$ gitbook serve ./repository
Or simply build the static website using:
$ gitbook build ./repository --output=./outputFolder
Options for commands build and serve are:
-t, --title <name> Name of the book to generate, defaults to repo name
-i, --intro <intro> Description of the book to generate
-g, --github <repo_path> ID of github repo like : username/repo
-o, --output <directory> Path to output directory, defaults to ./_book
-f, --format <name> Change generation format, defaults to site, availables are: site, page, pdf, json
--githubHost <url> The url of the github host (defaults to https://github.com/)
--theme <path> Path to theme directory
You can publish your books to our index by visiting GitBook.io
GitBook can generate your book in the following formats:
- Static Website: This is the default format, it generates a complete interactive static website that can be for example hosted on GitHub Pages.
- PDF: A complete PDF book with exercise solutions at the end of the book. Generate to this format using:
gitbook pdf ./myrepo, you need to have gitbook-pdf installed. - eBook: A complete eBook with exercise solutions at the end of the book. Generate to this format using:
gitbook ebook ./myrepo, you need to have ebook-convert installed. - Single Page: The book will be stored in a single printable HTML page, this format is used for conversion to PDF or eBook. Generate to this format using:
gitbook build ./myrepo -f page. - JSON: This format is used for debugging or extracting metadata from a book. Generate to this format using:
gitbook build ./myrepo -f json.
A book is a GitHub repository containing at least 2 files: README.md and SUMMARY.md.
As usual, it should contains an introduction for your book. It will be automatically added to the final summary.
The SUMMARY.md defines your book's structure. It should contain a list of chapters, linking to their respective pages.
Example:
# Summary
This is the summary of my book.
* [section 1](section1/README.md)
* [example 1](section1/example1.md)
* [example 2](section1/example2.md)
* [section 2](section2/README.md)
* [example 1](section2/example1.md)
Files that are not included in the SUMMARY.md will not be processed by gitbook.
A book can contain interactive exercises (currently only in Javascript but Python and Ruby are coming soon ;) ). An exercise is a code challenge provided to the reader, which is given a code editor to write a solution which is checked against the book author's validation code.
An exercise is defined by 4 simple parts:
- Exercise Message/Goals (in markdown/text)
- Initial code to show to the user, providing a starting point
- Solution code, being a correct solution to the exercise
- Validation code that tests the correctness of the user's input
Exercises need to start and finish with a separation bar (--- or ***). It should contain 3 code elements (base, solution and validation). It can contain a 4th element that provides context code (functions, imports of libraries etc ... that shouldn't be displayed to the user).
---
Define a variable `x` equal to 10.
```js
var x =
```
```js
var x = 10;
```
```js
assert(x == 10);
```
```js
// This is context code available everywhere
// The user will be able to call magicFunc in his code
function magicFunc() {
return 3;
}
```
---
GitBook supports building books written in multiple languages. Each language should be a sub-directory following the normal GitBook format, and a file named LANGS.md should be present at the root of the repository with the following format:
* [English](en/)
* [French](fr/)
* [Español](es/)
You can see a complete example with the Learn Git book.
GitBook will read the .gitignore, .bookignore and .ignore files to get a list of files and folders to skip. (The format inside those files, follows the same convention as .gitignore)