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Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07001kernel-doc nano-HOWTO
2=====================
3
Paul Jackson0842b242008-06-05 22:46:45 -07004How to format kernel-doc comments
5---------------------------------
6
7In order to provide embedded, 'C' friendly, easy to maintain,
8but consistent and extractable documentation of the functions and
9data structures in the Linux kernel, the Linux kernel has adopted
10a consistent style for documenting functions and their parameters,
11and structures and their members.
12
13The format for this documentation is called the kernel-doc format.
14It is documented in this Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt file.
15
16This style embeds the documentation within the source files, using
17a few simple conventions. The scripts/kernel-doc perl script, some
18SGML templates in Documentation/DocBook, and other tools understand
19these conventions, and are used to extract this embedded documentation
20into various documents.
21
22In order to provide good documentation of kernel functions and data
23structures, please use the following conventions to format your
24kernel-doc comments in Linux kernel source.
25
26We definitely need kernel-doc formatted documentation for functions
27that are exported to loadable modules using EXPORT_SYMBOL.
28
29We also look to provide kernel-doc formatted documentation for
30functions externally visible to other kernel files (not marked
31"static").
32
33We also recommend providing kernel-doc formatted documentation
34for private (file "static") routines, for consistency of kernel
35source code layout. But this is lower priority and at the
36discretion of the MAINTAINER of that kernel source file.
37
38Data structures visible in kernel include files should also be
39documented using kernel-doc formatted comments.
40
41The opening comment mark "/**" is reserved for kernel-doc comments.
42Only comments so marked will be considered by the kernel-doc scripts,
43and any comment so marked must be in kernel-doc format. Do not use
44"/**" to be begin a comment block unless the comment block contains
45kernel-doc formatted comments. The closing comment marker for
Randy Dunlapf40b45a2009-02-11 13:04:31 -080046kernel-doc comments can be either "*/" or "**/", but "*/" is
47preferred in the Linux kernel tree.
Paul Jackson0842b242008-06-05 22:46:45 -070048
49Kernel-doc comments should be placed just before the function
50or data structure being described.
51
52Example kernel-doc function comment:
53
54/**
55 * foobar() - short function description of foobar
56 * @arg1: Describe the first argument to foobar.
57 * @arg2: Describe the second argument to foobar.
58 * One can provide multiple line descriptions
59 * for arguments.
60 *
61 * A longer description, with more discussion of the function foobar()
62 * that might be useful to those using or modifying it. Begins with
63 * empty comment line, and may include additional embedded empty
64 * comment lines.
65 *
66 * The longer description can have multiple paragraphs.
Yacine Belkadie65fe5a2012-11-26 22:21:23 +010067 *
68 * Return: Describe the return value of foobar.
Randy Dunlapf40b45a2009-02-11 13:04:31 -080069 */
Paul Jackson0842b242008-06-05 22:46:45 -070070
Johannes Weiner64231332009-09-17 19:26:53 -070071The short description following the subject can span multiple lines
72and ends with an @argument description, an empty line or the end of
73the comment block.
Paul Jackson0842b242008-06-05 22:46:45 -070074
75The @argument descriptions must begin on the very next line following
76this opening short function description line, with no intervening
77empty comment lines.
78
Randy Dunlapd78dd072009-01-06 14:42:40 -080079If a function parameter is "..." (varargs), it should be listed in
80kernel-doc notation as:
81 * @...: description
82
Yacine Belkadie65fe5a2012-11-26 22:21:23 +010083The return value, if any, should be described in a dedicated section
84named "Return".
Randy Dunlapd78dd072009-01-06 14:42:40 -080085
Paul Jackson0842b242008-06-05 22:46:45 -070086Example kernel-doc data structure comment.
87
88/**
89 * struct blah - the basic blah structure
90 * @mem1: describe the first member of struct blah
91 * @mem2: describe the second member of struct blah,
92 * perhaps with more lines and words.
93 *
94 * Longer description of this structure.
Randy Dunlapf40b45a2009-02-11 13:04:31 -080095 */
Paul Jackson0842b242008-06-05 22:46:45 -070096
97The kernel-doc function comments describe each parameter to the
98function, in order, with the @name lines.
99
100The kernel-doc data structure comments describe each structure member
101in the data structure, with the @name lines.
102
103The longer description formatting is "reflowed", losing your line
104breaks. So presenting carefully formatted lists within these
105descriptions won't work so well; derived documentation will lose
106the formatting.
107
108See the section below "How to add extractable documentation to your
109source files" for more details and notes on how to format kernel-doc
110comments.
111
112Components of the kernel-doc system
113-----------------------------------
114
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700115Many places in the source tree have extractable documentation in the
116form of block comments above functions. The components of this system
117are:
118
119- scripts/kernel-doc
120
121 This is a perl script that hunts for the block comments and can mark
122 them up directly into DocBook, man, text, and HTML. (No, not
123 texinfo.)
124
125- Documentation/DocBook/*.tmpl
126
127 These are SGML template files, which are normal SGML files with
128 special place-holders for where the extracted documentation should
129 go.
130
Randy Dunlapc6120932006-11-02 22:07:01 -0800131- scripts/basic/docproc.c
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700132
133 This is a program for converting SGML template files into SGML
134 files. When a file is referenced it is searched for symbols
135 exported (EXPORT_SYMBOL), to be able to distinguish between internal
136 and external functions.
137 It invokes kernel-doc, giving it the list of functions that
138 are to be documented.
139 Additionally it is used to scan the SGML template files to locate
140 all the files referenced herein. This is used to generate dependency
141 information as used by make.
142
143- Makefile
144
145 The targets 'sgmldocs', 'psdocs', 'pdfdocs', and 'htmldocs' are used
146 to build DocBook files, PostScript files, PDF files, and html files
147 in Documentation/DocBook.
148
149- Documentation/DocBook/Makefile
150
151 This is where C files are associated with SGML templates.
152
153
154How to extract the documentation
155--------------------------------
156
157If you just want to read the ready-made books on the various
158subsystems (see Documentation/DocBook/*.tmpl), just type 'make
Randy Dunlapd28bee02006-02-01 03:06:57 -0800159psdocs', or 'make pdfdocs', or 'make htmldocs', depending on your
160preference. If you would rather read a different format, you can type
161'make sgmldocs' and then use DocBook tools to convert
162Documentation/DocBook/*.sgml to a format of your choice (for example,
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700163'db2html ...' if 'make htmldocs' was not defined).
164
165If you want to see man pages instead, you can do this:
166
167$ cd linux
168$ scripts/kernel-doc -man $(find -name '*.c') | split-man.pl /tmp/man
169$ scripts/kernel-doc -man $(find -name '*.h') | split-man.pl /tmp/man
170
171Here is split-man.pl:
172
173-->
174#!/usr/bin/perl
175
176if ($#ARGV < 0) {
177 die "where do I put the results?\n";
178}
179
180mkdir $ARGV[0],0777;
181$state = 0;
182while (<STDIN>) {
Kevin Diggs65eb3dc2008-08-26 10:26:54 +0200183 if (/^\.TH \"[^\"]*\" 9 \"([^\"]*)\"/) {
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700184 if ($state == 1) { close OUT }
185 $state = 1;
Kevin Diggs65eb3dc2008-08-26 10:26:54 +0200186 $fn = "$ARGV[0]/$1.9";
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700187 print STDERR "Creating $fn\n";
188 open OUT, ">$fn" or die "can't open $fn: $!\n";
189 print OUT $_;
190 } elsif ($state != 0) {
191 print OUT $_;
192 }
193}
194
195close OUT;
196<--
197
198If you just want to view the documentation for one function in one
199file, you can do this:
200
201$ scripts/kernel-doc -man -function fn file | nroff -man | less
202
203or this:
204
205$ scripts/kernel-doc -text -function fn file
206
207
208How to add extractable documentation to your source files
209---------------------------------------------------------
210
211The format of the block comment is like this:
212
213/**
214 * function_name(:)? (- short description)?
Randy Dunlap891dcd22007-02-10 01:45:53 -0800215(* @parameterx(space)*: (description of parameter x)?)*
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700216(* a blank line)?
217 * (Description:)? (Description of function)?
218 * (section header: (section description)? )*
219(*)?*/
220
Randy Dunlapd2b34e22010-01-08 14:43:09 -0800221All "description" text can span multiple lines, although the
222function_name & its short description are traditionally on a single line.
223Description text may also contain blank lines (i.e., lines that contain
224only a "*").
225
226"section header:" names must be unique per function (or struct,
227union, typedef, enum).
Robert P. J. Day262086c2007-02-10 01:45:58 -0800228
Yacine Belkadie65fe5a2012-11-26 22:21:23 +0100229Use the section header "Return" for sections describing the return value
230of a function.
231
Robert P. J. Day262086c2007-02-10 01:45:58 -0800232Avoid putting a spurious blank line after the function name, or else the
233description will be repeated!
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700234
235All descriptive text is further processed, scanning for the following special
236patterns, which are highlighted appropriately.
237
238'funcname()' - function
239'$ENVVAR' - environment variable
240'&struct_name' - name of a structure (up to two words including 'struct')
241'@parameter' - name of a parameter
242'%CONST' - name of a constant.
243
Robert P. J. Day262086c2007-02-10 01:45:58 -0800244NOTE 1: The multi-line descriptive text you provide does *not* recognize
245line breaks, so if you try to format some text nicely, as in:
246
Yacine Belkadie65fe5a2012-11-26 22:21:23 +0100247 Return:
Robert P. J. Day262086c2007-02-10 01:45:58 -0800248 0 - cool
249 1 - invalid arg
250 2 - out of memory
251
252this will all run together and produce:
253
Yacine Belkadie65fe5a2012-11-26 22:21:23 +0100254 Return: 0 - cool 1 - invalid arg 2 - out of memory
Robert P. J. Day262086c2007-02-10 01:45:58 -0800255
256NOTE 2: If the descriptive text you provide has lines that begin with
257some phrase followed by a colon, each of those phrases will be taken as
258a new section heading, which means you should similarly try to avoid text
259like:
260
Yacine Belkadie65fe5a2012-11-26 22:21:23 +0100261 Return:
Robert P. J. Day262086c2007-02-10 01:45:58 -0800262 0: cool
263 1: invalid arg
264 2: out of memory
265
266every line of which would start a new section. Again, probably not
267what you were after.
268
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700269Take a look around the source tree for examples.
270
271
Randy Dunlapd28bee02006-02-01 03:06:57 -0800272kernel-doc for structs, unions, enums, and typedefs
273---------------------------------------------------
274
275Beside functions you can also write documentation for structs, unions,
276enums and typedefs. Instead of the function name you must write the name
277of the declaration; the struct/union/enum/typedef must always precede
278the name. Nesting of declarations is not supported.
279Use the argument mechanism to document members or constants.
280
281Inside a struct description, you can use the "private:" and "public:"
282comment tags. Structure fields that are inside a "private:" area
Randy Dunlap52dc5ae2009-04-30 15:08:53 -0700283are not listed in the generated output documentation. The "private:"
284and "public:" tags must begin immediately following a "/*" comment
285marker. They may optionally include comments between the ":" and the
286ending "*/" marker.
Randy Dunlapd28bee02006-02-01 03:06:57 -0800287
288Example:
289
290/**
291 * struct my_struct - short description
292 * @a: first member
293 * @b: second member
294 *
295 * Longer description
296 */
297struct my_struct {
298 int a;
299 int b;
Randy Dunlap52dc5ae2009-04-30 15:08:53 -0700300/* private: internal use only */
Randy Dunlapd28bee02006-02-01 03:06:57 -0800301 int c;
302};
303
304
Randy Dunlap28f4d752009-01-06 14:42:43 -0800305Including documentation blocks in source files
306----------------------------------------------
307
308To facilitate having source code and comments close together, you can
309include kernel-doc documentation blocks that are free-form comments
310instead of being kernel-doc for functions, structures, unions,
311enums, or typedefs. This could be used for something like a
312theory of operation for a driver or library code, for example.
313
314This is done by using a DOC: section keyword with a section title. E.g.:
315
316/**
317 * DOC: Theory of Operation
318 *
319 * The whizbang foobar is a dilly of a gizmo. It can do whatever you
320 * want it to do, at any time. It reads your mind. Here's how it works.
321 *
322 * foo bar splat
323 *
324 * The only drawback to this gizmo is that is can sometimes damage
325 * hardware, software, or its subject(s).
326 */
327
328DOC: sections are used in SGML templates files as indicated below.
329
330
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700331How to make new SGML template files
332-----------------------------------
333
334SGML template files (*.tmpl) are like normal SGML files, except that
335they can contain escape sequences where extracted documentation should
336be inserted.
337
338!E<filename> is replaced by the documentation, in <filename>, for
339functions that are exported using EXPORT_SYMBOL: the function list is
340collected from files listed in Documentation/DocBook/Makefile.
341
342!I<filename> is replaced by the documentation for functions that are
343_not_ exported using EXPORT_SYMBOL.
344
345!D<filename> is used to name additional files to search for functions
346exported using EXPORT_SYMBOL.
347
348!F<filename> <function [functions...]> is replaced by the
349documentation, in <filename>, for the functions listed.
350
Randy Dunlap28f4d752009-01-06 14:42:43 -0800351!P<filename> <section title> is replaced by the contents of the DOC:
352section titled <section title> from <filename>.
353Spaces are allowed in <section title>; do not quote the <section title>.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700354
Johannes Bergeda603f2010-09-11 15:55:22 -0700355!C<filename> is replaced by nothing, but makes the tools check that
356all DOC: sections and documented functions, symbols, etc. are used.
357This makes sense to use when you use !F/!P only and want to verify
358that all documentation is included.
359
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700360Tim.
361*/ <twaugh@redhat.com>