# 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](https://gerrit.googlesource.com/gitiles/+/master/Documentation/markdown.md).

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.