org-export

org-export: batch export of Emacs org-mode files from the command line

• This project repository is hosted on GitHub.
• A rendered version of this file is hosted on GitHub Pages.

Overview

Emacs org-mode is a markup language for “keeping notes, maintaining TODO lists, planning projects, and authoring documents” - but most importantly (to me) it’s a platform for literate programming and reproducible research. Babel supports the creation of documents with interleaved code (eg, R, Python, shell, sqlite, elisp, etc) and text. The code may be evaluated and the results incorporated into the document. One limitation is that org-mode is primarily oriented toward interactive compilation of documents via emacs. This project provides tools for non-interactive compilation of org-mode files. Why is this useful?

• Not everyone uses emacs, but everyone should be able to create documents using org-mode!
• Document generation can be fully scripted (eg, as the final step in an analysis pipeline).
• Interactively-compiled documents depend on an individual user’s emacs configuration, which can produce different results for different users; these scripts manage all dependencies from elpa independently of the users’ own emacs config.
• These scripts also provide some conveniences with respect to providing css styles.

Installation and use

First, clone this repository and enter the cloned directory. There are a few options for installing and invoking the org-export entry point to a location on your $PATH (we’ll use /usr/local/bin as an example):

Recommended: use a hard link. This method allows you to update org-export with a git-pull from the git repository:

ln org-export *.el /usr/local/bin

Copy the files:

cp org-export *.el /usr/local/bin

Invoke using the absolute path to org-export within the cloned git repository.

Execute the script with -h to see usage and available commands:

./org-export -h

Usage: org-export command options...

Available commands include:
  cli
  html
  pdf
  pelican
  tangle

If all of the scripts are on your $PATH, you should be able to execute using:

org-export html --infile ...

You may need to explicitly identify the emacs binary using the EMACS environment variable; for example on OS X:

EMACS=/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs org-export html --infile ...

The package directory is defined as follows:

• In the directory identified by $ORG_EXPORT_DATA_DIR; or
• in the directory identified by $XDG_DATA_HOME/org-export; or
• in ~/.local/share/org-export

The first time a script is executed the package directory is created and dependencies (such as the most recent version of org-mode) are installed.

Note that source code blocks are evaluated with the working directory set to be the parent directory of the input file.

known issues

• Requires Emacs version 26 or higher.
• Use of :session with Python3 code blocks causes execution to halt.

Commands

org-export html

Exports org-mode to html

./org-export html -h

Command line options:

 --infile         Path to input .org file (required)
 --outfile        Path to output .html file (use base name of infile by
                  default)
 --add-langs      Comma-delimited list of additional languages to enable
                  in code blocks
 --evaluate       Evaluate source code blocks
 --css-name       Use the named css style; choose from 'bootstrap5',
                  'orgcss', 'org-manual'
 --css            Path or URL of css stylesheet
 --css-integrity  Optional value for css link integrity attribute
 --embed-css      Include contents of css in a <style> block
 --config         An elisp expression defining additional configuration
 --config-file    A file path providing additional configuration

Note that code block evaluation is disabled by default; use
'--evaluate' to set a default value of ':eval yes' for all code
blocks. If you would like to evaluate by default without requiring
this option, include '#+PROPERTY: header-args :eval yes' in the file
header. Individual blocks can be selectively evaluated using ':eval
yes' in the block header.

The simplest invocation is as follows (you can test this out using this document):

org-export html --infile README.org

If you want to provide css styles using Bootstrap (inserts a link to the Bootstrap CDN):

org-export html --infile README.org --bootstrap

You can also embed the css content in a <style> block - this is useful if you want to distribute a file and don’t want to assume that the user’s environment will support linking to the css file.

org-export html --infile README.org --bootstrap --embed-css

It’s also easy to link to or embed alternative css stylesheets, for example, the ones used by the org-mode manual:

org-export html --infile README.org --css http://orgmode.org/org-manual.css --embed-css

org-export pdf

Exports org-mode to pdf using latex

./org-export pdf -h

Command line options:

 --infile       path to input .org file (required)
 --outfile      path to output .pdf file (use base name of infile by
                default)
 --evaluate     evaluate source code blocks
 --config       an elisp expression defining additional configuration
 --config-file  a file path containing elisp expressions defining
                additional configuration

Note that code block evaluation is disabled by default; use
'--evaluate' to set a default value of ':eval yes' for all code
blocks. If you would like to evaluate by default without requiring
this option, include '#+PROPERTY: header-args :eval yes' in the file
header. Individual blocks can be selectively evaluated using ':eval
yes' in the block header.

org-export pelican

Export files for use with the pelican static site generator

./org-export pelican -h

Command line options:

 --infile     path to input .org file
 --outfile    path to output .html file (use base name of infile by
              default)
 --add-langs  comma-delimited list of additional languages to enable
              in code blocks

org-export tangle

Tangles code blocks in the specified file

./org-export tangle -h

Command line options:

 --infile     path to input .org file
 --add-langs  comma-delimited list of additional languages to enable
              in code blocks

org-export cli

Manage and view packages and defaults.

./org-export cli -h

Command line options:

 --show-package-dir        Print the path to package-dir
 --rm-package-dir          Remove 'package-dir' and any installed packges
 --show-default-languages  list the languages that are activated by default

Manage and view packages and defaults

Org-babel language support

By default, the following languages are activated for use in code blocks:

./org-export cli --show-default-languages

Additional languages may be activated using the argument --add-langs.

Additional configuration

Scripts will search for a config file containing elisp commands in the following sequence:

• $ORG_EXPORT_CONFIG_DIR/config.el
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/org-export/config.el
• ~/.config/org-export/config.el

Configuration may also be provided as elisp expressions using the arguments --config and --config-file. For example, to compile a document including plantuml code blocks (assuming a java runtime is installed):

./org-export html --infile tests/plantuml.org --add-langs plantuml --config '(setq org-plantuml-jar-path (expand-file-name "plantuml-1.2022.3.jar"))'

Note that you may also provide language-specific configuration in elisp code blocks, for example:

head -n3 tests/plantuml.org

Syntax highlighting

Getting syntax highlighting to work seemed impossible until I came across this emacs stackexchange post by Tobias. Code for enabling syntax highlighting included in org-export-cli.el is taken from that post. Thank you, Tobias!

Tests

From the top level of this repository:

tests/test.sh

Version info

emacs --version
git --no-pager log -n1

Local Variables

Local Variables: org-babel-min-lines-for-block-output: 3 End: