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authorPaul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>2008-06-08 22:19:41 -0400
committerPaul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>2008-06-08 22:19:41 -0400
commit8a3e1c670e503ddd6f6c373b307f38b783ee3a50 (patch)
tree03094e8425b750d2693a271ebc89b49312e5476a /Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
parente026892c85571e12f11abffde5a90bcc704d663e (diff)
parent60d5019be8acef268f4676d229c490186d338fbc (diff)
Merge branch 'merge'
Conflicts: arch/powerpc/sysdev/fsl_soc.c
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1kernel-doc nano-HOWTO 1kernel-doc nano-HOWTO
2===================== 2=====================
3 3
4How 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
46kernel-doc comments can be either "*/" or "**/".
47
48Kernel-doc comments should be placed just before the function
49or data structure being described.
50
51Example kernel-doc function comment:
52
53/**
54 * foobar() - short function description of foobar
55 * @arg1: Describe the first argument to foobar.
56 * @arg2: Describe the second argument to foobar.
57 * One can provide multiple line descriptions
58 * for arguments.
59 *
60 * A longer description, with more discussion of the function foobar()
61 * that might be useful to those using or modifying it. Begins with
62 * empty comment line, and may include additional embedded empty
63 * comment lines.
64 *
65 * The longer description can have multiple paragraphs.
66 **/
67
68The first line, with the short description, must be on a single line.
69
70The @argument descriptions must begin on the very next line following
71this opening short function description line, with no intervening
72empty comment lines.
73
74Example kernel-doc data structure comment.
75
76/**
77 * struct blah - the basic blah structure
78 * @mem1: describe the first member of struct blah
79 * @mem2: describe the second member of struct blah,
80 * perhaps with more lines and words.
81 *
82 * Longer description of this structure.
83 **/
84
85The kernel-doc function comments describe each parameter to the
86function, in order, with the @name lines.
87
88The kernel-doc data structure comments describe each structure member
89in the data structure, with the @name lines.
90
91The longer description formatting is "reflowed", losing your line
92breaks. So presenting carefully formatted lists within these
93descriptions won't work so well; derived documentation will lose
94the formatting.
95
96See the section below "How to add extractable documentation to your
97source files" for more details and notes on how to format kernel-doc
98comments.
99
100Components of the kernel-doc system
101-----------------------------------
102
4Many places in the source tree have extractable documentation in the 103Many places in the source tree have extractable documentation in the
5form of block comments above functions. The components of this system 104form of block comments above functions. The components of this system
6are: 105are: