Arguments and options for the dita command
The dita command takes mandatory arguments to process DITA content. Subcommands can be used to manage plug-ins, or print information about the current configuration. A series of options are available to modify the command behavior or specify additional configuration parameters.
Usage
To convert content from one format to another, specify the file to transform and the desired output format. If necessary, you can set additional configuration parameters with options.
The dita command also supports a series of subcommands that can be used to manage plug-ins, or print information about the current configuration or version.
Arguments
Each transformation requires you to specify at least the file to transform and the desired output format.
- --input=file
- -i file
- Specifies the main file for your documentation project.
- --format=name
- -f name
- Specifies the output format (transformation type).
- --project=file
- Publish a project file with multiple deliverables.
Subcommands
- deliverables file
- Show a list of the available deliverables in the specified project file.
- install { ID | URL | file }
- Install a single plug-in ID from the registry at dita-ot.org/plugins (or a local registry), from a remote URL, or a local ZIP file.
- install
- If no ID, URL, or file argument is provided, the installation process reloads the current set of plug-ins from the plugins directory (or any custom locations defined via the pluginsdir property in the configuration.properties file in the config directory). This approach can be used to add or remove multiple plug-ins at once, or any individual plug-ins you have already copied to (or removed from) the plug-in directories. Any plug-ins added or removed in the process will be listed by their plug-in ID.
- uninstall ID
- Remove the plug-in with the specified ID.
- plugins
- Show a list of the currently installed plug-ins.
- transtypes
- Show a list of the available output formats (transformation types).
- version
- Print version information and exit.
Options
- --debug
- -d
- Debug logging prints considerably more additional information. The debug log includes all information from the verbose log, plus details on Java classes, additional Ant properties and overrides, pre-processing filters, parameters, and stages, and the complete build sequence. Debug logging requires additional resources and can slow down the build process, so it should only be enabled when further details are required to diagnose problems.
- --filter=files
-
Specifies filter file(s) used to include, exclude, or flag content. Relative paths are resolved against the current directory and internally converted to absolute paths.
Note:To specify multiple filter files, use the system path separator character to delimit individual file paths (semicolon โ
;
โ on Windows, and colon โ:
โ on macOS and Linux) and wrap the value in quotes:--filter="filter1.ditaval;filter2.ditaval;filter3.ditaval"
As of DITA-OT 3.6, the --filter option can also be passed multiple times:
--filter=filter1.ditaval --filter=filter2.ditaval --filter=filter3.ditaval
DITAVAL files are evaluated in the order specified, so conditions specified in the first file take precedence over matching conditions specified in later files, just as conditions at the start of a DITAVAL document take precedence over matching conditions later in the same document.
- --help
- -h
- Print a list of available arguments, options, and subcommands.
- --logfile=file
- -l file
- Write logging messages to a file.
Note:If processing is successful, nothing is written to the log, so the file will be empty if there are no errors or warnings. To include informational messages in the log, add the --verbose option (or -v).
- --no-color
- By default, DITA-OT prints certain log messages to the console in color. In terminal environments that do
not support colored output, the ANSI color escape codes will be shown instead. To deactivate colored output,
pass the --no-color option to the dita command, or set the
TERM=dumb
orNO_COLOR
environment variables. - --output=dir
- -o dir
-
Specifies the path of the output directory; the path can be absolute or relative to the current directory.
This option corresponds to the common parameter output.dir.
By default, the output is written to the out subdirectory of the current directory.
- --parameter=value
- -Dparameter=value
- Specify a value for a DITA-OT or Ant build parameter.
- --propertyfile=file
- Use build parameters defined in the referenced .properties file.
- --repeat=N
- Repeat the transformation N number of times.
- --resource=file
- -r file
- Specifies resource files.
- --temp=dir
- -t dir
- Specifies the location of the temporary directory.
- --theme=file
- Publish PDF output with a theme configuration file.
- --verbose
- -v
- Verbose logging prints additional information to the console, including directory settings, effective values for Ant properties, input/output files, and informational messages to assist in troubleshooting.