219 lines
6.8 KiB
ReStructuredText
219 lines
6.8 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _style_guide:
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*******************
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Ansible style guide
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*******************
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Welcome to the Ansible style guide!
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To create clear, concise, consistent, useful materials on docs.ansible.com, follow these guidelines:
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.. contents::
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:local:
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Linguistic guidelines
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=====================
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We want the Ansible documentation to be:
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* clear
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* direct
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* conversational
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* easy to translate
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We want reading the docs to feel like having an experienced, friendly colleague
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explain how Ansible works.
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Stylistic cheat-sheet
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---------------------
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This cheat-sheet illustrates a few rules that help achieve the "Ansible tone":
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+-------------------------------+------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
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| Rule | Good example | Bad example |
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+===============================+==============================+========================================+
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| Use active voice | You can run a task by | A task can be run by |
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+-------------------------------+------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
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| Use the present tense | This command creates a | This command will create a |
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+-------------------------------+------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
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| Address the reader | As you expand your inventory | When the number of managed nodes grows |
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+-------------------------------+------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
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| Use standard English | Return to this page | Hop back to this page |
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+-------------------------------+------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
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| Use American English | The color of the output | The colour of the output |
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+-------------------------------+------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
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Header case
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-----------
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Headers should be written in sentence case. For example, this section's title is
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``Header case``, not ``Header Case`` or ``HEADER CASE``.
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Avoid using Latin phrases
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-------------------------
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Latin words and phrases like ``e.g.`` or ``etc.``
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are easily understood by English speakers.
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They may be harder to understand for others and are also tricky for automated translation.
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Use the following English terms in place of Latin terms or abbreviations:
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+-------------------------------+------------------------------+
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| Latin | English |
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+===============================+==============================+
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| i.e | in other words |
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+-------------------------------+------------------------------+
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| e.g. | for example |
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+-------------------------------+------------------------------+
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| etc | and so on |
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+-------------------------------+------------------------------+
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| via | by/ through |
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+-------------------------------+------------------------------+
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| vs./versus | rather than/against |
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+-------------------------------+------------------------------+
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reStructuredText guidelines
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===========================
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The Ansible documentation is written in reStructuredText and processed by Sphinx.
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We follow these technical or mechanical guidelines on all rST pages:
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Header notation
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---------------
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`Section headers in reStructuredText <https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/restructuredtext/basics.html#sections>`_
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can use a variety of notations.
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Sphinx will 'learn on the fly' when creating a hierarchy of headers.
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To make our documents easy to read and to edit, we follow a standard set of header notations.
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We use:
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* ``###`` with overline, for parts:
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.. code-block:: rst
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###############
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Developer guide
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###############
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* ``***`` with overline, for chapters:
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.. code-block:: rst
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*******************
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Ansible style guide
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*******************
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* ``===`` for sections:
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.. code-block:: rst
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Mechanical guidelines
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=====================
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* ``---`` for subsections:
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.. code-block:: rst
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Internal navigation
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-------------------
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* ``^^^`` for sub-subsections:
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.. code-block:: rst
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Adding anchors
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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* ``"""`` for paragraphs:
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.. code-block:: rst
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Paragraph that needs a title
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""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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Internal navigation
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-------------------
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`Anchors (also called labels) and links <https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/restructuredtext/roles.html#ref-role>`_
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work together to help users find related content.
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Local tables of contents also help users navigate quickly to the information they need.
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All internal links should use the ``:ref:`` syntax.
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Every page should have at least one anchor to support internal ``:ref:`` links.
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Long pages, or pages with multiple levels of headers, can also include a local TOC.
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Adding anchors
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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* Include at least one anchor on every page
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* Place the main anchor above the main header
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* If the file has a unique title, use that for the main page anchor::
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.. _unique_page::
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* You may also add anchors elsewhere on the page
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Adding internal links
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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* All internal links must use ``:ref:`` syntax. These links both point to the anchor defined above:
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.. code-block:: rst
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:ref:`unique_page`
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:ref:`this page <unique_page>`
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The second example adds custom text for the link.
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Adding links to modules and plugins
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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* Module links use the module name followed by ``_module`` for the anchor.
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* Plugin links use the plugin name followed by the plugin type. For example, :ref:`enable become plugin <enable_become>`).
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.. code-block:: rst
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:ref:`this module <this_module>``
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:ref:`that connection plugin <that_connection>`
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Adding local TOCs
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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The page you're reading includes a `local TOC <http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/directives.html#table-of-contents>`_.
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If you include a local TOC:
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* place it below, not above, the main heading and (optionally) introductory text
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* use the ``:local:`` directive so the page's main header is not included
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* do not include a title
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The syntax is:
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.. code-block:: rst
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.. contents::
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:local:
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More resources
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==============
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These pages offer more help with grammatical, stylistic, and technical rules for documentation.
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.. toctree::
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:maxdepth: 1
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basic_rules
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voice_style
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trademarks
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grammar_punctuation
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spelling_word_choice
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resources
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.. seealso::
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:ref:`community_documentation_contributions`
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How to contribute to the Ansible documentation
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:ref:`testing_documentation_locally`
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How to build the Ansible documentation
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`irc.freenode.net <http://irc.freenode.net>`_
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#ansible-docs IRC chat channel
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