starting.doc 13.7 KB
Newer Older
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
1 2
/******************************************************************************
 *
3
 * 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
4
 *
5
 * Copyright (C) 1997-2008 by Dimitri van Heesch.
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
 *
 * Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
 * documentation under the terms of the GNU General Public License is hereby 
 * granted. No representations are made about the suitability of this software 
 * for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
 * See the GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
13 14
 * Documents produced by Doxygen are derivative works derived from the
 * input used in their production; they are not affected by this license.
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
 *
 */
/*! \page starting Getting started

The executable \c doxygen is the main program that parses the sources and 
generates the documentation. See section \ref doxygen_usage for more
detailed usage information.

The executable \c doxytag is only needed if you want to generate references 
24
to external documentation (i.e. documentation that was generated by doxygen) 
25 26
for which you do not have the sources. See section \ref doxytag_usage 
for more detailed usage information.
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
27

28
Optionally, the executable \c doxywizard can be used, which is a 
29 30 31 32
\ref doxywizard_usage "graphical front-end" for editing the configuration file 
that is used by doxygen and for running doxygen in a graphical environment.
For Mac OS X doxywizard will be started by clicking on the Doxygen application
icon.
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
33

34
The following figure shows the relation between the tools and the flow
35 36
of information between them (it looks complex but that's only because it
tries to be complete):
37 38 39 40

\image html infoflow.gif "Doxygen information flow" 
\image latex infoflow.eps "Doxygen information flow" width=14cm

41
\section step1 Step 1: Creating a configuration file
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
42 43 44 45 46 47

Doxygen uses a configuration file to determine all of its settings.
Each project should get its own configuration file. A project can consist
of a single source file, but can also be an entire source tree that is 
recursively scanned.

48
To simplify the creation of a configuration file, doxygen can create a 
49 50
template configuration file for you. To do this call \c doxygen 
from the command line with the \c -g option:
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
51 52 53
\verbatim
doxygen -g <config-file>
\endverbatim
54

Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
55 56
where \<config-file\> is the name of the configuration file. If you omit
the file name, a file named \c Doxyfile will be created. If a file with the
57
name \<config-file\> already exists, doxygen will rename it to 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
58
\<config-file\>.bak before generating the configuration template.
59 60
If you use <code>-</code> (i.e. the minus sign) as the file name then 
doxygen will try to read the configuration file from standard 
61
input (<code>stdin</code>), which can be useful for scripting.
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
62 63

The configuration file has a format that is similar to that of a (simple) 
64
Makefile. It consists of a number of assignments (tags) of the form:
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
65 66 67 68

<tt>TAGNAME = VALUE</tt> or <br>
<tt>TAGNAME = VALUE1 VALUE2 ... </tt><br>

69
You can probably leave the values of most tags in a generated template 
70 71
configuration file to their default value.  See section \ref config for 
more details about the configuration file. 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
72

73
If you do not wish to edit the config file with a text editor, you should 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
74 75 76 77
have a look at \ref doxywizard_usage "doxywizard", which is a GUI 
front-end that can create, read and write doxygen configuration files, 
and allows setting configuration options by entering them via dialogs.

78 79 80 81 82 83
For a small project consisting of a few C and/or C++ source 
and header files, you can leave
\ref cfg_input "INPUT" tag empty and doxygen will search for sources in
the current directory. 

If you have a larger project consisting of a source directory or tree 
84 85
you should assign the root directory or 
directories to the \ref cfg_input "INPUT" tag, and add one or more file 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
86 87
patterns to the \ref cfg_file_patterns "FILE_PATTERNS" tag 
(for instance <code>*.cpp *.h</code>). Only files that match one of the 
88 89
patterns will be parsed (if the patterns are omitted a list of 
source extensions is used).
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
90
For recursive parsing of a source tree you must set 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
91 92 93
the \ref cfg_recursive "RECURSIVE" tag to \c YES. To further fine-tune the 
list of files that is parsed the \ref cfg_exclude "EXCLUDE" and 
\ref cfg_exclude_patterns "EXCLUDE_PATTERNS" tags can be used.
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
94 95 96
To omit all \c test directories from a source tree for instance, one could use:
\verbatim EXCLUDE_PATTERNS = */test/* 
\endverbatim
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
97

98
Doxygen looks at the file's extension to determine how to parse a file.
99 100 101 102 103
If a file has an <code>.idl</code> or <code>.odl</code> extension it is 
treated as an IDL file. If it has a <code>.java</code> extension it is 
treated as a file written in Java. Files ending with <code>.cs</code> are 
treated as C# files and the <code>.py</code> extension selects the 
Python parser. Finally, files with the extensions <code>.php</code>, <code>.php4</code>,
104
<code>.inc</code> or <code>.phtml</code> are treated as PHP sources.
105 106
Any other extension is parsed as if it is a C/C++ file, where files that
end with <code>.m</code> are treated as Objective-C source files.
107

Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
108
\anchor extract_all
109 110
If you start using doxygen for an existing project (thus without any 
documentation that doxygen is aware of), you can still get an idea of
111 112
what the structure is and how the documented result would look like. 
To do so, you must set 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
113 114
the \ref cfg_extract_all "EXTRACT_ALL" tag in the configuration file 
to \c YES. Then, doxygen will pretend everything in your sources is documented. 
115 116 117
Please note that as a consequence warnings about undocumented members 
will not be generated as long as \ref cfg_extract_all "EXTRACT_ALL" is 
set to \c YES.
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
118

119 120
To analyse an existing piece of software it is useful to cross-reference 
a (documented) entity with its definition in the source files. Doxygen will
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
121 122
generate such cross-references if you set 
the \ref cfg_source_browser "SOURCE_BROWSER" tag to \c YES.  
123
It can also include the sources directly into the documentation by setting
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
124
\ref cfg_inline_sources "INLINE_SOURCES" to \c YES (this can be handy for 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
125
code reviews for instance).
126

127
\section step2 Step 2: Running doxygen
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
128 129 130 131 132 133

To generate the documentation you can now enter:
\verbatim
doxygen <config-file>
\endverbatim

134 135
Depending on your settings doxygen will create \c html, \c rtf, 
\c latex, \c xml and/or \c man directories inside the output directory. 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
136
As the names suggest these directories contain the
137 138
generated documentation in HTML, RTF, \f$\mbox{\LaTeX}\f$, XML and 
Unix-Man page format.
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
139 140

The default output directory is the directory in which \c doxygen
141 142 143
is started. The root directory to which the output is written can be changed 
using the \ref cfg_output_directory "OUTPUT_DIRECTORY". The format specific
directory within the output directory can be selected using the
144
\ref cfg_html_output "HTML_OUTPUT", \ref cfg_rtf_output "RTF_OUTPUT",
145 146
\ref cfg_latex_output "LATEX_OUTPUT", \ref cfg_xml_output "XML_OUTPUT",
and \ref cfg_man_output "MAN_OUTPUT" 
147
tags of the configuration file. If the output directory does not exist, 
148 149
\c doxygen will try to create it for you (but it will \e not try to create
a whole path recursively, like <code>mkdir -p</code> does). 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
150

151
\subsection html_out HTML output
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
152 153 154 155
\addindex browser
The generated HTML documentation can be viewed by pointing a HTML browser
to the \c index.html file in the \c html directory. For the best results
a browser that supports cascading style sheets (CSS) should be used
156 157 158 159 160 161
(I'm using Mozilla, Safari, Konqueror, and sometimes IE6 to test the 
generated output). 

Some of the features the HTML section (such as 
\ref cfg_generate_treeview "GENERATE_TREEVIEW") require a browser that
supports DHTML and Javascript. 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
162

163 164
If you plan to use the search engine (see 
\ref cfg_searchengine "SEARCHENGINE"), you should view the HTML output 
165
via a PHP-enabled web server (e.g. apache with the PHP module installed).
166 167 168

\subsection latex_out LaTeX output
\addindex LaTeX
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
169
The generated \f$\mbox{\LaTeX}\f$ documentation must first be compiled by 
170 171
a \f$\mbox{\LaTeX}\f$ compiler (I use a recent teTeX distribution). 
To simplify the process of compiling the generated
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
172
documentation, \c doxygen writes a \c Makefile into the \c latex directory. 
173 174 175 176 177

The contents and targets in the \c Makefile depend on the setting of
\ref cfg_use_pdflatex "USE_PDFLATEX". If it is disabled (set to \c NO), then
typing \c make in the \c latex directory a dvi file called \c refman.dvi
will be generated. This file can then be viewed using \c xdvi or 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
178
converted into a PostScript file \c refman.ps by 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
179
typing <code>make ps</code> (this requires <code>dvips</code>).  
180

Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
181
To put 2 pages on one physical page use <code>make ps_2on1</code> instead.
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
182 183 184
The resulting PostScript file can be send to a PostScript
printer. If you do not have a PostScript printer, you can try to use 
ghostscript to convert PostScript into something your printer understands.
185

Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
186
Conversion to PDF is also possible if you have installed the ghostscript
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
187
interpreter; just type <code>make pdf</code> (or <code>make pdf_2on1</code>). 
188

Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
189
To get the best results for PDF output you should set 
190
the \ref cfg_pdf_hyperlinks "PDF_HYPERLINKS" 
191 192 193
and \ref cfg_use_pdflatex "USE_PDFLATEX" tags to \c YES. 
In this case the \c Makefile will only contain a target to build 
\c refman.pdf directly.
194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223

\subsection rtf_out RTF output
\addindex RTF
Doxygen combines the RTF output to a single file called refman.rtf. This
file is optimized for importing into the Microsoft Word. Certain information
is encoded using field. To show the actual value you need to 
select all (Edit - select all) and then toggle fields (right click and select
the option from the drop down menu).

\subsection xml_out XML output
\addindex XML
The XML output consists of a structured "dump" of the information gathered 
by doxygen. Each compound (class/namespace/file/...) has its own XML file 
and there is also an index file called index.xml. 

A file called combine.xslt
XSLT script is also generated and can be used to combine all XML files 
into a single file. 

Doxygen also generates two XML schema files index.xsd
(for the index file) and compound.xsd (for the compound files).
This schema file describes the possible elements, their attributes and 
how they are structured, i.e. it the describes the grammar of the XML 
files and can be used for validation or to steer XSLT scripts.

In the addon/doxmlparser directory you can find a parser library for reading
the XML output produced by doxygen in an incremental way 
(see addon/doxmlparser/include/doxmlintf.h for the interface of the library)

\subsection man_out Man page output
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
224
The generated man pages can be viewed using the \c man program. You do need
225 226
to make sure the man directory is in the man path (see the \c MANPATH
environment variable). Note that there are some limitations to the 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
227 228 229
capabilities of the man page format, so some information 
(like class diagrams, cross references and formulas) will be lost.

230
\section step3 Step 3: Documenting the sources
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
231

232
Although documenting the sources is presented as step 3, in a new project 
233
this should of course be step 1. Here I assume
234
you already have some code and you want doxygen to generate a nice document 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
235 236
describing the API and maybe the internals as well.

Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
237 238 239 240 241
If the \ref cfg_extract_all "EXTRACT_ALL" option is set to \c NO in the 
configuration file (the default), then doxygen will only generate 
documentation for \e documented members, files, classes and namespaces. So 
how do you document these? For members, classes and namespaces there are 
basically two options:
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250
<ol>
<li>Place a \e special documentation block in front of the declaration or
    definition of the member, class or namespace. For file, class and namespace
    members it is also allowed to place the documention directly after the 
    member. See section \ref specialblock to learn more about special 
    documentation blocks.
<li>Place a special documentation block somewhere else (another file or 
    another location) \e and put a <em>structural command</em> in the 
    documentation block. A structural command links a documentation block 
251
    to a certain entity that can be documented (e.g. a member, class, 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
252 253 254
    namespace or file). See section \ref structuralcommands to learn more 
    about structural commands.
</ol>
255
Files can only be documented using the second option, since there is
256
no way to put a documentation block before a file. Of course, file members 
257 258 259 260
(functions, variable, typedefs, defines) do not need an explicit 
structural command; just putting a special documentation block in front or 
behind them will do. 

Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268
The text inside a special documentation block is parsed
before it is written to the HTML and/or \f$\mbox{\LaTeX}\f$ output files.

\addindex parsing
During parsing the following steps take place:
<ul>
<li> The special commands inside the documentation are executed. See
     section \ref commands for an overview of all commands.
269
<li> If a line starts with some whitespace followed by one or more asterisks 
270
     (<tt>*</tt>) and then optionally more whitespace, 
271
     then all whitespace and asterisks are removed.
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
272
<li> All resulting blank lines are treated as a paragraph separators.
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
273
     This saves you from placing new-paragraph commands yourself 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
274
     in order to make the generated documentation readable.
275 276 277
<li> Links are created for words corresponding to documented classes
     (unless the word is preceded by a \%; then the word will not be linked and
     the \% sign is removed). 
Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285
<li> Links to members are created when certain patterns are found in the
     text. See section \ref autolink
     for more information on how the automatic link generation works.
<li> HTML tags that are in the documentation are interpreted and converted 
     to \f$\mbox{\LaTeX}\f$ equivalents for the \f$\mbox{\LaTeX}\f$ output. 
     See section \ref htmlcmds for an overview of all supported HTML tags.
</ul>

Dimitri van Heesch's avatar
Dimitri van Heesch committed
286 287 288 289 290 291 292
\htmlonly
Go to the <a href="docblocks.html">next</a> section or return to the
 <a href="index.html">index</a>.
\endhtmlonly

*/