1 kernel-doc nano-HOWTO
2 =====================
3
4 Many places in the source tree have extractable documentation in the
5 form of block comments above functions. The components of this system
6 are:
7
8 - scripts/kernel-doc
9
10 This is a perl script that hunts for the block comments and can mark
11 them up directly into DocBook, man, text, and HTML. (No, not
12 texinfo.)
13
14 - Documentation/DocBook/*.tmpl
15
16 These are SGML template files, which are normal SGML files with
17 special place-holders for where the extracted documentation should
18 go.
19
20 - scripts/docproc.c
21
22 This is a program for converting SGML template files into SGML
23 files. It invokes kernel-doc, giving it the list of functions that
24 are to be documented.
25
26 - scripts/gen-all-syms
27
28 This is a script that lists the EXPORT_SYMBOL symbols in a list of C
29 files.
30
31 - scripts/docgen
32
33 This script invokes docproc, telling it which functions are to be
34 documented (this list comes from gen-all-syms).
35
36 - Makefile
37
38 The targets 'sgmldocs', 'psdocs', and 'pdfdocs' are used to build
39 DocBook files, PostScript files, and PDF files in
40 Documentation/DocBook.
41
42 - Documentation/DocBook/Makefile
43
44 This is where C files are associated with SGML templates.
45
46
47 How to extract the documentation
48 --------------------------------
49
50 If you just want to read the ready-made books on the various
51 subsystems (see Documentation/DocBook/*.tmpl), just type 'make
52 psdocs', or 'make pdfdocs', depending on your preference. If you
53 would rather read a different format, you can type 'make sgmldocs' and
54 then use DocBook tools to convert Documentation/DocBook/*.sgml to a
55 format of your choice (for example, 'db2html ...').
56
57 If you want to see man pages instead, you can do this:
58
59 $ cd linux
60 $ scripts/kernel-doc -man $(find -name '*.c' '*.h') | split-man.pl /tmp/man
61
62 Here is split-man.pl:
63
64 -->
65 #!/usr/bin/perl
66
67 if ($#ARGV < 0) {
68 die "where do I put the results?\n";
69 }
70
71 mkdir $ARGV[0],0777 or die "Can't create $ARGV[0]: $!\n";
72 $state = 0;
73 while (<STDIN>) {
74 if (/^\.TH \"[^\"]*\" 4 \"([^\"]*)\"/) {
75 if ($state == 1) { close OUT }
76 $state = 1;
77 $fn = "$ARGV[0]/$1.4";
78 print STDERR "Creating $fn\n";
79 open OUT, ">$fn" or die "can't open $fn: $!\n";
80 print OUT $_;
81 } elsif ($state != 0) {
82 print OUT $_;
83 }
84 }
85
86 close OUT;
87 <--
88
89 If you just want to view the documentation for one function in one
90 file, you can do this:
91
92 $ scripts/kernel-doc -man -function fn file | nroff -man | less
93
94 or this:
95
96 $ scripts/kernel-doc -text -function fn file
97
98
99 How to add extractable documentation to your source files
100 ---------------------------------------------------------
101
102 The format of the block comment is like this:
103
104 /**
105 * function_name(:)? (- short description)?
106 (* @parameterx: (description of parameter x)?)*
107 (* a blank line)?
108 * (Description:)? (Description of function)?
109 * (section header: (section description)? )*
110 (*)?*/
111
112 The short function description cannot be multiline, but the other
113 descriptions can be.
114
115 All descriptive text is further processed, scanning for the following special
116 patterns, which are highlighted appropriately.
117
118 'funcname()' - function
119 '$ENVVAR' - environment variable
120 '&struct_name' - name of a structure (up to two words including 'struct')
121 '@parameter' - name of a parameter
122 '%CONST' - name of a constant.
123
124 Take a look around the source tree for examples.
125
126
127 How to make new SGML template files
128 -----------------------------------
129
130 SGML template files (*.tmpl) are like normal SGML files, except that
131 they can contain escape sequences where extracted documentation should
132 be inserted.
133
134 !E<filename> is replaced by the documentation, in <filename>, for
135 functions that are exported using EXPORT_SYMBOL: the function list is
136 collected from files listed in Documentation/DocBook/Makefile.
137
138 !I<filename> is replaced by the documentation for functions that are
139 _not_ exported using EXPORT_SYMBOL.
140
141 !F<filename> <function [functions...]> is replaced by the
142 documentation, in <filename>, for the functions listed.
143
144
145 Tim.
146 */ <twaugh@redhat.com>
147
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