md_browser

This is a simple tool to render the markdown docs in a chromium checkout locally. It is written in Python and uses the Python ‘markdown’ package, which is checked into src/third_party.

md_browser attempts to emulate the flavor of Markdown implemented by Gitiles.

Gitiles is the source browser running on https://chromium.googlesource.com, and can be run locally, but to do so requires a Java install and a Buck install, which can be slightly annoying to set up on Mac or Windows.

This is a lighterweight solution, which also allows you to preview uncommitted changes (i.e., it just serves files out of the filesystem, and is not a full Git repo browser like Gitiles is).

To run md_browser:

  1. cd to the top of your chromium checkout

  2. run python3 tools/md_browser/md_browser.py

  3. There is no step three.

This will run a local web server on port 8080 that points to the top of the repo. You can specify a different port with the -p flag.