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. An editor is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. You can follow @GitBookIO on Twitter.

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/)
--plugins <plugins>  List of plugins to use separated by ","
--pluginsConfig <json file> JSON File containing plugins configuration

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)

Plugins can used to extend your book functionnalities. Read GitbookIO/plugin for more informations about how to build a plugin for gitbook.

• mathjax: displays mathematical notation in the book.
• mixpanel: Mixpanel tracking for your book

• Google Analytics: Google Analytics tracking for your book