The build configuration file

The configuration directory must contain a file named conf.py. This file (containing Python code) is called the “build configuration file” and contains all configuration needed to customize Sphinx input and output behavior.

The configuration file is executed as Python code at build time (using execfile(), and with the current directory set to its containing directory), and therefore can execute arbitrarily complex code. Sphinx then reads simple names from the file’s namespace as its configuration.

Important points to note:

General configuration

Project information

Options for internationalization

These options influence Sphinx’ Native Language Support. See the documentation on Internationalization for details.

Options for HTML output

These options influence HTML as well as HTML Help output, and other builders that use Sphinx’ HTMLWriter class.

Options for epub output

These options influence the epub output. As this builder derives from the HTML builder, the HTML options also apply where appropriate. The actual values for some of the options is not really important, they just have to be entered into the Dublin Core metadata.

Options for LaTeX output

These options influence LaTeX output.

Options for text output

These options influence text output.

Options for manual page output

These options influence manual page output.

Options for Texinfo output

These options influence Texinfo output.

Options for the linkcheck builder

Footnotes

[1]A note on available globbing syntax: you can use the standard shell constructs *, ?, [...] and [!...] with the feature that these all don’t match slashes. A double star ** can be used to match any sequence of characters including slashes.