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doc: add "Godoc: documenting Go code" article
Originally published on The Go Programming Language Blog, March 31, 2011. http://blog.golang.org/2011/03/godoc-documenting-go-code.html R=golang-dev, adg CC=golang-dev https://golang.org/cl/5830043
This commit is contained in:
Francisco Souza
Andrew Gerrand
parent
1c224ab9dd
commit
235863cb12
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articles/laws_of_reflection.rawhtml\
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articles/c_go_cgo.rawhtml\
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articles/go_concurrency_patterns_timing_out_moving_on.rawhtml\
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articles/godoc_documenting_go_code.rawhtml\
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effective_go.rawhtml\
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doc/articles/godoc_documenting_go_code.html
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doc/articles/godoc_documenting_go_code.html
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<!--{
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"Title": "Godoc: documenting Go code",
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"Template": true
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}-->
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<p>
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The Go project takes documentation seriously. Documentation is a huge part of
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making software accessible and maintainable. Of course it must be well-written
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and accurate, but it also must be easy to write and to maintain. Ideally, it
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should be coupled to the code itself so the documentation evolves along with the
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code. The easier it is for programmers to produce good documentation, the better
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for everyone.
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</p>
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<p>
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To that end, we have developed the <a href="/cmd/godoc/">godoc</a> documentation
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tool. This article describes godoc's approach to documentation, and explains how
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you can use our conventions and tools to write good documentation for your own
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projects.
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</p>
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<p>
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Godoc parses Go source code - including comments - and produces documentation as
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HTML or plain text. The end result is documentation tightly coupled with the
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code it documents. For example, through godoc's web interface you can navigate
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from a function's <a href="/pkg/strings/#HasPrefix">documentation</a> to its
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<a href="/src/pkg/strings/strings.go?#L312">implementation</a> with one click.
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</p>
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<p>
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Godoc is conceptually related to Python's
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<a href="http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/">Docstring</a> and Java's
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<a href="http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/index-jsp-135444.html">Javadoc</a>,
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but its design is simpler. The comments read by godoc are not language
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constructs (as with Docstring) nor must they have their own machine-readable
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syntax (as with Javadoc). Godoc comments are just good comments, the sort you
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would want to read even if godoc didn't exist.
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</p>
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<p>
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The convention is simple: to document a type, variable, constant, function, or
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even a package, write a regular comment directly preceding its declaration, with
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no intervening blank line. Godoc will then present that comment as text
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alongside the item it documents. For example, this is the documentation for the
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<code>fmt</code> package's <a href="/pkg/fmt/#Fprint"><code>Fprint</code></a>
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function:
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</p>
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{{code "/src/pkg/fmt/print.go" `/Fprint formats using the default/` `/func Fprint/`}}
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<p>
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Notice this comment is a complete sentence that begins with the name of the
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element it describes. This important convention allows us to generate
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documentation in a variety of formats, from plain text to HTML to UNIX man
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pages, and makes it read better when tools truncate it for brevity, such as when
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they extract the first line or sentence.
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</p>
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<p>
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Comments on package declarations should provide general package documentation.
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These comments can be short, like the <a href="/pkg/sort/"><code>sort</code></a>
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package's brief description:
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</p>
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{{code "/src/pkg/sort/sort.go" `/Package sort provides/` `/package sort/`}}
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<p>
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They can also be detailed like the <a href="/pkg/encoding/gob/">gob package</a>'s
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overview. That package uses another convention for packages
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that need large amounts of introductory documentation: the package comment is
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placed in its own file, <a href="/src/pkg/encoding/gob/doc.go">doc.go</a>, which
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contains only those comments and a package clause.
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</p>
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<p>
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When writing package comments of any size, keep in mind that their first
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sentence will appear in godoc's <a href="/pkg/">package list</a>.
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</p>
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<p>
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Comments that are not adjacent to a top-level declaration are omitted from
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godoc's output, with one notable exception. Top-level comments that begin with
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the word <code>"BUG(who)”</code> are recognized as known bugs, and included in
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the "Bugs” section of the package documentation. The "who” part should be the
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user name of someone who could provide more information. For example, this is a
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known issue from the <a href="/pkg/bytes/#bugs">bytes package</a>:
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</p>
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<pre>
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// BUG(r): The rule Title uses for word boundaries does not handle Unicode punctuation properly.
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</pre>
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<p>
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Godoc treats executable commands somewhat differently. Instead of inspecting the
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command source code, it looks for a Go source file belonging to the special
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package "documentation”. The comment on the "package documentation” clause is
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used as the command's documentation. For example, see the
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<a href="/cmd/godoc/">godoc documentation</a> and its corresponding
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<a href="/src/cmd/godoc/doc.go">doc.go</a> file.
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</p>
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<p>
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There are a few formatting rules that Godoc uses when converting comments to
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HTML:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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Subsequent lines of text are considered part of the same paragraph; you must
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leave a blank line to separate paragraphs.
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</li>
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<li>
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Pre-formatted text must be indented relative to the surrounding comment text
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(see gob's <a href="/src/pkg/encoding/gob/doc.go">doc.go</a> for an example).
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</li>
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<li>
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URLs will be converted to HTML links; no special markup is necessary.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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Note that none of these rules requires you to do anything out of the ordinary.
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</p>
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<p>
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In fact, the best thing about godoc's minimal approach is how easy it is to use.
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As a result, a lot of Go code, including all of the standard library, already
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follows the conventions.
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</p>
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<p>
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Your own code can present good documentation just by having comments as
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described above. Any Go packages installed inside <code>$GOROOT/src/pkg</code>
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and any <code>GOPATH</code> work spaces will already be accessible via godoc's
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command-line and HTTP interfaces, and you can specify additional paths for
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indexing via the <code>-path</code> flag or just by running <code>"godoc ."</code>
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in the source directory. See the <a href="/cmd/godoc/">godoc documentation</a>
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for more details.
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</p>
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@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ Guided tours of Go programs.
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/doc/articles/go_command.html">About the Go command</a> - why we wrote it, what it is, what it's not, and how to use it.</li>
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<li><a href="/doc/articles/c_go_cgo.html">C? Go? Cgo!</a> - linking against C code with <a href="/cmd/cgo/">cgo</a>.</li>
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<li><a href="http://blog.golang.org/2011/03/godoc-documenting-go-code.html">Godoc: documenting Go code</a> - writing good documentation for <a href="/cmd/godoc/">godoc</a>.</li>
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<li><a href="/doc/articles/godoc_documenting_go_code.html">Godoc: documenting Go code</a> - writing good documentation for <a href="/cmd/godoc/">godoc</a>.</li>
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<li><a href="http://blog.golang.org/2011/06/profiling-go-programs.html">Profiling Go Programs</a></li>
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</ul>
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@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ Using GDB to debug Go programs.
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<li><a href="/doc/articles/c_go_cgo.html">C? Go? Cgo!</a> - linking against C code with <a href="/cmd/cgo/">cgo</a>.</li>
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<li><a href="/doc/articles/defer_panic_recover.html">Defer, Panic, and Recover</a></li>
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<li><a href="/doc/articles/slices_usage_and_internals.html">Go Slices: usage and internals</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://blog.golang.org/2011/03/godoc-documenting-go-code.html">Godoc: documenting Go code</a> - writing good documentation for <a href="/cmd/godoc/">godoc</a>.</li>
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<li><a href="/doc/articles/godoc_documenting_go_code.html">Godoc: documenting Go code</a> - writing good documentation for <a href="/cmd/godoc/">godoc</a>.</li>
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<li><a href="http://blog.golang.org/2011/06/profiling-go-programs.html">Profiling Go Programs</a></li>
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</ul>
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@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
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<p>
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The <b>info</b> column shows the first paragraph from the
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<a href="http://blog.golang.org/2011/03/godoc-documenting-go-code.html">package doc comment</a>.
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<a href="http://golang.org/doc/articles/godoc_documenting_go_code.html">package doc comment</a>.
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</p>
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<h2>Most Installed Packages (this week)</h2>
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@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ one may run godoc as follows:
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godoc -http=:6060 -zip=go.zip -goroot=$HOME/go
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See "Godoc: documenting Go code" for how to write good comments for godoc:
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http://blog.golang.org/2011/03/godoc-documenting-go-code.html
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http://golang.org/doc/articles/godoc_documenting_go_code.html
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*/
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package documentation
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