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-NOTE: this document is outdated and will eventually be removed. See
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-Documentation/doc-guide/ for current information.
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-
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-kernel-doc nano-HOWTO
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-=====================
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-
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-How to format kernel-doc comments
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----------------------------------
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-
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-In order to provide embedded, 'C' friendly, easy to maintain,
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-but consistent and extractable documentation of the functions and
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-data structures in the Linux kernel, the Linux kernel has adopted
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-a consistent style for documenting functions and their parameters,
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-and structures and their members.
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-
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-The format for this documentation is called the kernel-doc format.
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-It is documented in this Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt file.
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-
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-This style embeds the documentation within the source files, using
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-a few simple conventions. The scripts/kernel-doc perl script, the
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-Documentation/sphinx/kerneldoc.py Sphinx extension and other tools understand
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-these conventions, and are used to extract this embedded documentation
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-into various documents.
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-
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-In order to provide good documentation of kernel functions and data
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-structures, please use the following conventions to format your
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-kernel-doc comments in Linux kernel source.
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-
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-We definitely need kernel-doc formatted documentation for functions
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-that are exported to loadable modules using EXPORT_SYMBOL.
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-
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-We also look to provide kernel-doc formatted documentation for
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-functions externally visible to other kernel files (not marked
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-"static").
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-
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-We also recommend providing kernel-doc formatted documentation
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-for private (file "static") routines, for consistency of kernel
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-source code layout. But this is lower priority and at the
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-discretion of the MAINTAINER of that kernel source file.
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-
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-Data structures visible in kernel include files should also be
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-documented using kernel-doc formatted comments.
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-
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-The opening comment mark "/**" is reserved for kernel-doc comments.
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-Only comments so marked will be considered by the kernel-doc scripts,
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-and any comment so marked must be in kernel-doc format. Do not use
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-"/**" to be begin a comment block unless the comment block contains
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-kernel-doc formatted comments. The closing comment marker for
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-kernel-doc comments can be either "*/" or "**/", but "*/" is
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-preferred in the Linux kernel tree.
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-
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-Kernel-doc comments should be placed just before the function
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-or data structure being described.
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-
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-Example kernel-doc function comment:
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-
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-/**
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- * foobar() - short function description of foobar
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- * @arg1: Describe the first argument to foobar.
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- * @arg2: Describe the second argument to foobar.
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- * One can provide multiple line descriptions
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- * for arguments.
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- *
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- * A longer description, with more discussion of the function foobar()
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- * that might be useful to those using or modifying it. Begins with
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- * empty comment line, and may include additional embedded empty
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- * comment lines.
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- *
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- * The longer description can have multiple paragraphs.
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- *
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- * Return: Describe the return value of foobar.
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- */
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-
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-The short description following the subject can span multiple lines
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-and ends with an @argument description, an empty line or the end of
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-the comment block.
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-
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-The @argument descriptions must begin on the very next line following
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-this opening short function description line, with no intervening
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-empty comment lines.
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-
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-If a function parameter is "..." (varargs), it should be listed in
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-kernel-doc notation as:
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- * @...: description
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-
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-The return value, if any, should be described in a dedicated section
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-named "Return".
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-
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-Example kernel-doc data structure comment.
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-
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-/**
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- * struct blah - the basic blah structure
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- * @mem1: describe the first member of struct blah
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- * @mem2: describe the second member of struct blah,
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- * perhaps with more lines and words.
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- *
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- * Longer description of this structure.
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- */
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-
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-The kernel-doc function comments describe each parameter to the
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-function, in order, with the @name lines.
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-
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-The kernel-doc data structure comments describe each structure member
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-in the data structure, with the @name lines.
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-
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-The longer description formatting is "reflowed", losing your line
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-breaks. So presenting carefully formatted lists within these
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-descriptions won't work so well; derived documentation will lose
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-the formatting.
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-
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-See the section below "How to add extractable documentation to your
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-source files" for more details and notes on how to format kernel-doc
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-comments.
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-
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-Components of the kernel-doc system
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------------------------------------
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-
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-Many places in the source tree have extractable documentation in the
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-form of block comments above functions. The components of this system
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-are:
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-
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-- scripts/kernel-doc
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-
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- This is a perl script that hunts for the block comments and can mark
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- them up directly into DocBook, ReST, man, text, and HTML. (No, not
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- texinfo.)
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-
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-- scripts/docproc.c
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-
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- This is a program for converting SGML template files into SGML
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- files. When a file is referenced it is searched for symbols
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- exported (EXPORT_SYMBOL), to be able to distinguish between internal
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- and external functions.
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- It invokes kernel-doc, giving it the list of functions that
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- are to be documented.
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- Additionally it is used to scan the SGML template files to locate
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- all the files referenced herein. This is used to generate dependency
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- information as used by make.
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-
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-- Makefile
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-
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- The targets 'xmldocs', 'latexdocs', 'pdfdocs', 'epubdocs'and 'htmldocs'
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- are used to build XML DocBook files, LaTeX files, PDF files,
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- ePub files and html files in Documentation/.
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-
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-How to extract the documentation
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---------------------------------
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-
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-If you just want to read the ready-made books on the various
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-subsystems, just type 'make epubdocs', or 'make pdfdocs', or 'make htmldocs',
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-depending on your preference. If you would rather read a different format,
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-you can type 'make xmldocs' and then use DocBook tools to convert
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-Documentation/output/*.xml to a format of your choice (for example,
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-'db2html ...' if 'make htmldocs' was not defined).
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-
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-If you want to see man pages instead, you can do this:
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-
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-$ cd linux
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-$ scripts/kernel-doc -man $(find -name '*.c') | split-man.pl /tmp/man
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-$ scripts/kernel-doc -man $(find -name '*.h') | split-man.pl /tmp/man
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-
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-Here is split-man.pl:
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-
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--->
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-#!/usr/bin/perl
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-
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-if ($#ARGV < 0) {
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- die "where do I put the results?\n";
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-}
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-
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-mkdir $ARGV[0],0777;
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-$state = 0;
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-while (<STDIN>) {
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- if (/^\.TH \"[^\"]*\" 9 \"([^\"]*)\"/) {
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- if ($state == 1) { close OUT }
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- $state = 1;
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- $fn = "$ARGV[0]/$1.9";
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- print STDERR "Creating $fn\n";
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- open OUT, ">$fn" or die "can't open $fn: $!\n";
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- print OUT $_;
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- } elsif ($state != 0) {
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- print OUT $_;
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- }
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-}
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-
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-close OUT;
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-<--
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-
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-If you just want to view the documentation for one function in one
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-file, you can do this:
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-
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-$ scripts/kernel-doc -man -function fn file | nroff -man | less
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-
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-or this:
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-
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-$ scripts/kernel-doc -text -function fn file
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-
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-
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-How to add extractable documentation to your source files
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----------------------------------------------------------
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-
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-The format of the block comment is like this:
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-
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-/**
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- * function_name(:)? (- short description)?
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-(* @parameterx(space)*: (description of parameter x)?)*
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-(* a blank line)?
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- * (Description:)? (Description of function)?
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- * (section header: (section description)? )*
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-(*)?*/
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-
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-All "description" text can span multiple lines, although the
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-function_name & its short description are traditionally on a single line.
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-Description text may also contain blank lines (i.e., lines that contain
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-only a "*").
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-
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-"section header:" names must be unique per function (or struct,
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-union, typedef, enum).
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-
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-Use the section header "Return" for sections describing the return value
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-of a function.
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-
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-Avoid putting a spurious blank line after the function name, or else the
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-description will be repeated!
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-
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-All descriptive text is further processed, scanning for the following special
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-patterns, which are highlighted appropriately.
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-
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-'funcname()' - function
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-'$ENVVAR' - environment variable
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-'&struct_name' - name of a structure (up to two words including 'struct')
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-'@parameter' - name of a parameter
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-'%CONST' - name of a constant.
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-
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-NOTE 1: The multi-line descriptive text you provide does *not* recognize
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-line breaks, so if you try to format some text nicely, as in:
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-
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- Return:
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- 0 - cool
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- 1 - invalid arg
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- 2 - out of memory
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-
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-this will all run together and produce:
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-
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- Return: 0 - cool 1 - invalid arg 2 - out of memory
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-
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-NOTE 2: If the descriptive text you provide has lines that begin with
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-some phrase followed by a colon, each of those phrases will be taken as
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-a new section heading, which means you should similarly try to avoid text
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-like:
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-
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- Return:
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- 0: cool
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- 1: invalid arg
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- 2: out of memory
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-
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-every line of which would start a new section. Again, probably not
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-what you were after.
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-
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-Take a look around the source tree for examples.
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-
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-
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-kernel-doc for structs, unions, enums, and typedefs
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----------------------------------------------------
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-
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-Beside functions you can also write documentation for structs, unions,
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-enums and typedefs. Instead of the function name you must write the name
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-of the declaration; the struct/union/enum/typedef must always precede
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-the name. Nesting of declarations is not supported.
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-Use the argument mechanism to document members or constants.
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-
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-Inside a struct description, you can use the "private:" and "public:"
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-comment tags. Structure fields that are inside a "private:" area
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-are not listed in the generated output documentation. The "private:"
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-and "public:" tags must begin immediately following a "/*" comment
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-marker. They may optionally include comments between the ":" and the
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-ending "*/" marker.
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-
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-Example:
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-
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-/**
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- * struct my_struct - short description
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- * @a: first member
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- * @b: second member
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- *
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- * Longer description
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- */
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-struct my_struct {
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- int a;
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- int b;
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-/* private: internal use only */
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- int c;
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-};
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-
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-
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-Including documentation blocks in source files
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-----------------------------------------------
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-
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-To facilitate having source code and comments close together, you can
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-include kernel-doc documentation blocks that are free-form comments
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-instead of being kernel-doc for functions, structures, unions,
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-enums, or typedefs. This could be used for something like a
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-theory of operation for a driver or library code, for example.
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-
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-This is done by using a DOC: section keyword with a section title. E.g.:
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-
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-/**
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- * DOC: Theory of Operation
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- *
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- * The whizbang foobar is a dilly of a gizmo. It can do whatever you
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- * want it to do, at any time. It reads your mind. Here's how it works.
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- *
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- * foo bar splat
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- *
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- * The only drawback to this gizmo is that is can sometimes damage
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- * hardware, software, or its subject(s).
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- */
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-
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-DOC: sections are used in ReST files.
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-
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-Tim.
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-*/ <twaugh@redhat.com>
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