mxml/www/docfiles/mxmldoc.html
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<H1 align="right"><A name="MXMLDOC"><IMG align="right" alt="4" height="100"
hspace="10" src="4.gif" width="100"></A>Using the mxmldoc Utility</H1>
<P>This chapter describes how to use <TT>mxmldoc(1)</TT> program to
automatically generate documentation from C and C++ source files.</P>
<H2><A NAME="5_1">The Basics</A></H2>
<P>Originally developed to generate the Mini-XML and CUPS API
documentation, <TT>mxmldoc</TT> is now a general-purpose utility which
scans C and C++ source files to produce HTML and man page documentation
along with an XML file representing the functions, types, and
definitions in those source files. Unlike popular documentation
generators like Doxygen or Javadoc, <TT>mxmldoc</TT> uses in-line
comments rather than comment headers, allowing for more &quot;natural&quot; code
documentation.</P>
<P>By default, <TT>mxmldoc</TT> produces HTML documentation. For
example, the following command will scan all of the C source and header
files in the current directory and produce a HTML documentation file
called<VAR> filename.html</VAR>:</P>
<PRE>
<KBD>mxmldoc *.h *.c &gt;filename.html ENTER</KBD>
</PRE>
<P>You can also specify an XML file to create which contains all of the
information from the source files. For example, the following command
creates an XML file called<VAR> filename.xml</VAR> in addition to the
HTML file:</P>
<PRE>
<KBD>mxmldoc filename.xml *.h *.c &gt;filename.html ENTER</KBD>
</PRE>
<P>The <TT>--no-output</TT> option disables the normal HTML output:</P>
<PRE>
<KBD>mxmldoc --no-output filename.xml *.h *.c ENTER</KBD>
</PRE>
<P>You can then run <TT>mxmldoc</TT> again with the XML file alone to
generate the HTML documentation:</P>
<PRE>
<KBD>mxmldoc filename.xml &gt;filename.html ENTER</KBD>
</PRE>
<H3><A NAME="5_1_1">Creating Man Pages</A></H3>
<P>The <TT>--man filename</TT> option tells <TT>mxmldoc</TT> to create a
man page instead of HTML documentation, for example:</P>
<PRE>
<KBD>mxmldoc --man filename filename.xml \
&gt;filename.man ENTER</KBD>
<KBD>mxmldoc --man filename *.h *.c \
&gt;filename.man ENTER</KBD>
</PRE>
<H3><A NAME="5_1_2">Creating Xcode Documentation Sets</A></H3>
<P>The <TT>--docset directory.docset</TT> option tells <TT>mxmldoc</TT>
to create an Xcode documentation set containing the HTML documentation,
for example:</P>
<PRE>
<KBD>mxmldoc --docset foo.docset *.h *.c foo.xml ENTER</KBD>
</PRE>
<P>Xcode documentation sets can only be built on Mac OS X with Xcode 3.0
or higher installed.</P>
<H2><A NAME="5_2">Commenting Your Code</A></H2>
<P>As noted previously, <TT>mxmldoc</TT> looks for in-line comments to
describe the functions, types, and constants in your code. <TT>Mxmldoc</TT>
will document all public names it finds in your source files - any
names starting with the underscore character (_) or names that are
documented with the <A HREF="#ATDIRECTIVES">@private@</A> directive are
treated as private and are undocumented.</P>
<P>Comments appearing directly before a function or type definition are
used to document that function or type. Comments appearing after
argument, definition, return type, or variable declarations are used to
document that argument, definition, return type, or variable. For
example, the following code excerpt defines a key/value structure and a
function that creates a new instance of that structure:</P>
<PRE>
/* A key/value pair. This is used with the
dictionary structure. */
struct keyval
{
char *key; /* Key string */
char *val; /* Value string */
};
/* Create a new key/value pair. */
struct keyval * /* New key/value pair */
new_keyval(
const char *key, /* Key string */
const char *val) /* Value string */
{
...
}
</PRE>
<P><TT>Mxmldoc</TT> also knows to remove extra asterisks (*) from the
comment string, so the comment string:</P>
<PRE>
/*
* Compute the value of PI.
*
* The function connects to an Internet server
* that streams audio of mathematical monks
* chanting the first 100 digits of PI.
*/
</PRE>
<P>will be shown as:</P>
<PRE>
Compute the value of PI.
The function connects to an Internet server
that streams audio of mathematical monks
chanting the first 100 digits of PI.
</PRE>
<P><A name="ATDIRECTIVES">Comments</A> can also include the following
special <TT>@name ...@</TT> directive strings:</P>
<UL>
<LI><TT>@deprecated@</TT> - flags the item as deprecated to discourage
its use</LI>
<LI><TT>@private@</TT> - flags the item as private so it will not be
included in the documentation</LI>
<LI><TT>@since ...@</TT> - flags the item as new since a particular
release. The text following the <TT>@since</TT> up to the closing <TT>@</TT>
is highlighted in the generated documentation, e.g. <TT>@since CUPS
1.3@</TT>.</LI>
</UL>
<!-- NEED 10 -->
<H2><A NAME="5_3">Titles, Sections, and Introductions</A></H2>
<P><TT>Mxmldoc</TT> also provides options to set the title, section, and
introduction text for the generated documentation. The <TT>--title text</TT>
option specifies the title for the documentation. The title string is
usually put in quotes:</P>
<PRE>
<KBD>mxmldoc filename.xml \
--title &quot;My Famous Documentation&quot; \
&gt;filename.html ENTER</KBD>
</PRE>
<P>The <TT>--section name</TT> option specifies the section for the
documentation. For HTML documentation, the name is placed in a HTML
comment such as:</P>
<PRE>
&lt;!-- SECTION: name --&gt;
</PRE>
<P>For man pages, the section name is usually just a number (&quot;3&quot;), or a
number followed by a vendor name (&quot;3acme&quot;). The section name is used in
the <TT>.TH</TT> directive in the man page:</P>
<PRE>
.TH mylibrary 3acme &quot;My Title&quot; ...
</PRE>
<P>The default section name for man page output is &quot;3&quot;. There is no
default section name for HTML output.</P>
<P>Finally, the <TT>--intro filename</TT> option specifies a file to
embed after the title and section but before the generated
documentation. For HTML documentation, the file must consist of valid
HTML without the usual <TT>DOCTYPE</TT>, <TT>html</TT>, and <TT>body</TT>
elements. For man page documentation, the file must consist of valid <TT>
nroff(1)</TT> text.</P>
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