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# Sphinx Extensions

Since many projects will need special features in their documentation, Sphinx allows to add “extensions” to the build process, each of which can modify almost any aspect of document processing.

This chapter describes the extensions bundled with Sphinx. For the API documentation on writing your own extension, see Developing extensions for Sphinx.

## Builtin Sphinx extensions

These extensions are built in and can be activated by respective entries in the `extensions` configuration value:

- `sphinx.ext.autodoc` – Include documentation from docstrings
  - Docstring preprocessing
  - Skipping members
- `sphinx.ext.autosummary` – Generate autodoc summaries
  - sphinx-autogen – generate autodoc stub pages
  - Generating stub pages automatically
  - Customizing templates
- `sphinx.ext.doctest` – Test snippets in the documentation
- `sphinx.ext.intersphinx` – Link to other projects’ documentation
- Math support in Sphinx
  - `sphinx.ext.pngmath` – Render math as PNG images
  - `sphinx.ext.mathjax` – Render math via JavaScript
  - `sphinx.ext.jsmath` – Render math via JavaScript
- `sphinx.ext.graphviz` – Add Graphviz graphs
- `sphinx.ext.inheritance_diagram` – Include inheritance diagrams
- `sphinx.ext.ifconfig` – Include content based on configuration
- `sphinx.ext.coverage` – Collect doc coverage stats
- `sphinx.ext.todo` – Support for todo items
- `sphinx.ext.extlinks` – Markup to shorten external links
- `sphinx.ext.viewcode` – Add links to highlighted source code
- `sphinx.ext.linkcode` – Add external links to source code
- `sphinx.ext.oldcmarkup` – Compatibility extension for old C markup

## Third-party extensions

You can find several extensions contributed by users in the Sphinx Contrib repository. It is open for anyone who wants to maintain an extension publicly; just send a short message asking for write permissions.

There are also several extensions hosted elsewhere. The Wiki at BitBucket maintains a list of those.

If you write an extension that you think others will find useful or you think should be included as a part of Sphinx, please write to the project mailing list (join here).

### Where to put your own extensions?

Extensions local to a project should be put within the project’s directory structure. Set Python’s module search path, `sys.path`, accordingly so that Sphinx can find them. E.g., if your extension `foo.py` lies in the `exts` subdirectory of the project root, put into `conf.py`:

    import sys, os

    sys.path.append(os.path.abspath('exts'))

    extensions = ['foo']

You can also install extensions anywhere else on `sys.path`, e.g. in the `site-packages` directory.

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