Command-Line Interface

Multimark includes a command-line tool for quick Markdown conversions without writing Python code. It reads from a file or stdin and writes the rendered output to stdout or a file.

Basic Usage

The simplest invocation converts Markdown to HTML:

echo '# Hello **world**' | multimark

<h1>Hello <strong>world</strong></h1>

You can also pass a filename directly:

multimark README.md

Choosing an Output Format

Use the -t / --to flag to select the output format. The available formats are html (the default), latex, man, commonmark, and xml.

echo '# Hello' | multimark --to latex

\section{Hello}

echo '**bold** and *italic*' | multimark --to xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE document SYSTEM "CommonMark.dtd">
<document xmlns="http://commonmark.org/xml/1.0">
  <paragraph>
    <strong>
      <text xml:space="preserve">bold</text>
    </strong>
    <text xml:space="preserve"> and </text>
    <emph>
      <text xml:space="preserve">italic</text>
    </emph>
  </paragraph>
</document>

Writing to a File

Use -o / --output to write results to a file instead of stdout:

multimark README.md --to html -o README.html

Enabling GFM Extensions

GFM extensions are enabled with the -e / --extension flag. It can be repeated to enable multiple extensions at once.

echo '| A | B |\n|---|---|\n| 1 | 2 |' | multimark -e table

The available extensions are autolink, strikethrough, table, tagfilter, and tasklist.

multimark doc.md -e table -e strikethrough -e autolink

Rendering Options

Several flags control how the Markdown is parsed and rendered:

Flag	Effect
--smart	Convert straight quotes to curly, -- to en-dash, --- to em-dash, ... to ellipsis
--unsafe	Allow raw HTML and potentially dangerous URLs to pass through
--hardbreaks	Render soft line breaks as hard breaks
--sourcepos	Add source position attributes (html and xml only)
--footnotes	Enable footnote syntax

These can be combined freely:

echo '"Hello" -- world...' | multimark --smart

<p>\u201cHello\u201d \u2013 world\u2026</p>

echo '<div>raw</div>' | multimark --unsafe

<div>raw</div>

Reading from stdin

When no file argument is provided, multimark reads from stdin. This makes it easy to use in shell pipelines:

curl -s https://example.com/README.md | multimark --to html > output.html

cat doc.md | multimark --smart --to latex | tee output.tex

Version

Check the installed version with:

multimark --version

Full Help

multimark --help

Usage: multimark [OPTIONS] [FILE]

  Convert CommonMark/GFM Markdown to various output formats.

  Reads Markdown from FILE (or stdin if omitted) and writes the converted
  output to stdout or the file specified by --output.

Options:
  -t, --to [html|latex|man|commonmark|xml]
                                  Output format.
  -o, --output FILENAME           Output file (stdout if omitted).
  -e, --extension [autolink|strikethrough|table|tagfilter|tasklist]
                                  Enable a GFM extension (repeatable).
  --smart                         Use smart punctuation.
  --unsafe                        Allow raw HTML and dangerous URLs.
  --hardbreaks                    Render softbreaks as hard line breaks.
  --sourcepos                     Include source position attributes (html/xml
                                  only).
  --footnotes                     Enable footnote parsing.
  --version                       Show the version and exit.
  --help                          Show this message and exit.