How to parse restructuredtext in python?

Question

Is there any module that can parse restructuredtext into a tree model?

Can docutils or sphinx do this?

Answer 1

I'd like to extend upon the answer from Gareth Latty. "What you probably want is the parser at docutils.parsers.rst" is a good starting point of the answer, but what's next? Namely:

How to parse restructuredtext in python?

Below is the exact answer for Python 3.6 and docutils 0.14:

import docutils.nodes import docutils.parsers.rst import docutils.utils import docutils.frontend  def parse_rst(text: str) -> docutils.nodes.document:     parser = docutils.parsers.rst.Parser()     components = (docutils.parsers.rst.Parser,)     settings = docutils.frontend.OptionParser(components=components).get_default_values()     document = docutils.utils.new_document('<rst-doc>', settings=settings)     parser.parse(text, document)     return document 

And the resulting document can be processed using, for example, below, which will print all references in the document:

class MyVisitor(docutils.nodes.NodeVisitor):      def visit_reference(self, node: docutils.nodes.reference) -> None:         """Called for "reference" nodes."""         print(node)      def unknown_visit(self, node: docutils.nodes.Node) -> None:         """Called for all other node types."""         pass 

Here's how to run it:

doc = parse_rst('spam spam lovely spam') visitor = MyVisitor(doc) doc.walk(visitor) 

Answer 2

Docutils does indeed contain the tools to do this.

What you probably want is the parser at docutils.parsers.rst

See this page for details on what is involved. There are also some examples at docutils/examples.py - particularly check out the internals() function, which is probably of interest.