1.8 KiB
The serve command
The serve command is used to preview a book by serving it via HTTP at
localhost:3000 by default:
mdbook serve
The serve command watches the book's src directory for
changes, rebuilding the book and refreshing clients for each change; this includes
re-creating deleted files still mentioned in SUMMARY.md! A websocket
connection is used to trigger the client-side refresh.
Note: The serve command is for testing a book's HTML output, and is not
intended to be a complete HTTP server for a website.
Specify a directory
The serve command can take a directory as an argument to use as the book's
root instead of the current working directory.
mdbook serve path/to/book
Server options
The serve hostname defaults to localhost, and the port defaults to 3000. Either option can be specified on the command line:
mdbook serve path/to/book -p 8000 -n 127.0.0.1
--open
When you use the --open (-o) flag, mdbook will open the book in your
default web browser after starting the server.
--dest-dir
The --dest-dir (-d) option allows you to change the output directory for the
book. Relative paths are interpreted relative to the book's root directory. If
not specified it will default to the value of the build.build-dir key in
book.toml, or to ./book.
Specify exclude patterns
The serve command will not automatically trigger a build for files listed in
the .gitignore file in the book root directory. The .gitignore file may
contain file patterns described in the gitignore
documentation. This can be useful for
ignoring temporary files created by some editors.
Note: Only the .gitignore from the book root directory is used. Global
$HOME/.gitignore or .gitignore files in parent directories are not used.