.. index::
   sphinx directives

=================
Sphinx Directives
=================

.. seealso::

   - http://sphinx-doc.org/latest/domains.html#directive-rst:role
   - http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/directives.html#images

A directive is a generic block of explicit markup.  Besides roles, it is one of
the extension mechanisms of reST, and Sphinx makes heavy use of it.

Basically, a directive consists of a name, arguments, options and content. (Keep
this terminology in mind, it is used in the next chapter describing custom
directives.)  Looking at this example, ::

   .. function:: foo(x)
                 foo(y, z)
      :bar: no

      Return a line of text input from the user.

``function`` is the directive name.  It is given two arguments here, the
remainder of the first line and the second line, as well as one option ``bar``
(as you can see, options are given in the lines immediately following the
arguments and indicated by the colons).

The directive content follows after a blank line and is indented relative to the
directive start.