# How to install xml2rfc on Debian


[Xml2rfc](https://trac.tools.ietf.org/tools/xml2rfc/trac/) is *the* tool the IETF uses to convert
the canonical XML for an Internet-Draft into text, HTML or a PDF. This utility has seen many
releases while the XML schema was being finalized. It's important (if you write I-Ds) that you have
the latest version of xml2rfc installed.

Installing it as a Debian package is done with:

* go to <https://pypi.org/project/xml2rfc/#files>
* download the tar archive (say "xml2rfc-2.35.0.tar.gz")
* execute: `py2dsc-deb xml2rfc-2.35.0.tar.gz` ("py2dsc-deb" can be found in the "python-stdeb" package)
* execute: `sudo dpkg -i deb_dist/python-xml2rfc_2.35.0-1_all.deb`

Note a `py2dsc` also exists, but that doesn't create a Debian package.

If you don't want to write I-Ds in XML, take a look at [mmark](https://mmark.miek.nl/) that allows
you to use Markdown.