@tag
)
-option
)
javadoc [ options ] [ packagenames ] [ sourcefilenames ] [ -subpackages
pkg1:pkg2:... ] [ @argfiles ]
Arguments can be in any order. See processing of Source Files for
details on how the Javadoc tool determines which
".java
" files to process.
options
packagenames
java.lang java.lang.reflect java.awt
. You
must separately specify each package you want to document.
Wildcards are not allowed; use -subpackages for recursion. The
Javadoc tool uses -sourcepath
to look for these
package names. See Example -
Documenting One or More Packagessourcefilenames
X-Buffer
), or other illegal characters, to prevent
them from being documented. This is useful for test files and template files The path that
precedes the source file name determines where javadoc will look
for the file. (The Javadoc tool does not use
-sourcepath
to look for these source file names.)
Relative paths are relative to the current directory, so passing in
Button.java
is identical to
./Button.java
. A source file name with an absolute
path and a wildcard, for example, is
/home/src/java/awt/Graphics*.java
. See Example - Documenting One or More
Classes. You can also mix packagenames and sourcefilenames, as
in Example - Documenting Both
Packages and Classes-subpackages
pkg1:pkg2:...@argfiles
-J
options are not allowed in these files.
You can run the Javadoc tool on entire packages, individual source files, or both. When documenting entire packages, you
can either use -subpackages
for traversing recursively down from a top-level directory, or pass
in an explicit list of package names. When documenting individual
source files, you pass in a list of source (.java
)
filenames. Examples are given at the end of
this document. How Javadoc processes source files is covered
next.
.java
"
plus other files described under Source
Files. If you run the Javadoc tool by explicitly passing in
individual source filenames, you can determine exactly which
".java
" files are processed. However, that is not how
most developers want to work, as it is simpler to pass in package
names. The Javadoc tool can be run three ways without explicitly
specifying the source filenames. You can (1) pass in package names,
(2) use -subpackages
, and
(3) use wildcards with source filenames (*.java
). In
these cases, the Javadoc tool processes a ".java
" file
only if it fulfills all of the following requirements:
.java
" suffix,
is actually a legal class name (see the
Java Language Specification for legal characters)Processing of links - During a run, the Javadoc tool automatically adds cross-reference links to package, class and member names that are being documented as part of that run. Links appear in several places:
@see
tags{@link}
tags@throws
tags-link
and -linkoffline
options.
Other processing details - The Javadoc tool produces one complete document each time it is run; it cannot do incremental builds -- that is, it cannot modify or directly incorporate results from previous runs of the Javadoc tool. However, it can link to results from other runs, as just mentioned.
As implemented, the Javadoc tool requires and relies on the java
compiler to do its job. The Javadoc tool calls part of
javac
to compile the declarations, ignoring the member
implementation. It builds a rich internal representation of the
classes, including the class hierarchy, and "use" relationships,
then generates the HTML from that. The Javadoc tool also picks up
user-supplied documentation from documentation comments in the source
code.
In fact, the Javadoc tool will run on .java
source
files that are pure stub files with no method bodies. This means
you can write documentation comments and run the Javadoc tool in
the earliest stages of design while creating the API, before
writing the implementation.
Relying on the compiler ensures that the HTML output corresponds
exactly with the actual implementation, which may rely on implicit,
rather than explicit, source code. For example, the Javadoc tool
documents default constructors ( see the Java Language
Specification) that are present in the .class
files but not in the source code.
In many cases, the Javadoc tool allows you to generate documentation for source files whose code is incomplete or erroneous. This is a benefit that enables you to generate documentation before all debugging and troubleshooting is done. For example, according to the Java Language Specification, a class that contains an abstract method should itself be declared abstract. The Javadoc tool does not check for this, and would proceed without a warning, whereas the javac compiler stops on this error. The Javadoc tool does do some primitive checking of doc comments. Use the DocCheck doclet to check the doc comments more thoroughly.
When the Javadoc tool builds its internal structure for the documentation, it loads all referenced classes. Because of this, the Javadoc tool must be able to find all referenced classes, whether bootstrap classes, extensions, or user classes. For more about this, see How Classes Are Found. Generally speaking, classes you create must either be loaded as an extension or in the Javadoc tool's class path.
java.lang.String.equals(java.lang.Object)
, or
partially-qualified, such as equals(Object)
.
java.awt
package, then
any class in java.lang
, such as Object
,
is an external referenced class. External referenced classes can be
linked to using the -link
and
-linkoffline
options. An important property of an
external referenced class is that its source comments are normally
not available to the Javadoc run. In this case, these comments
cannot be inherited..java
), package comment files, overview
comment files, and miscellaneous unprocessed files. This section
also covers test files and template files that can also be in the
source tree, but which you want to be sure not to document.
.java
file. For
more details about these doc comments, see Documentation Comments.
To create a package comment file, you have a choice of two files to place your comments:
package-info.java
- Can contain a package
declaration, package annotations, package comments and Javadoc
tags. This file is generally preferred over package.html.package.html
- Can contain only package comments
and Javadoc tags, no package annotations.A package may have a single package.html
file or a
single package-info.java
file but not both. Place
either file in the package directory in the source tree along with
your .java
files.
package-info.java
This file can contain a
package comment of the following structure -- the comment is placed
before the package declaration:
File: java/applet/package-info.java
/** * Provides the classes necessary to create an * applet and the classes an applet uses * to communicate with its applet context. * <p> * The applet framework involves two entities: * the applet and the applet context. * An applet is an embeddable window (see the * {@link java.awt.Panel} class) with a few extra * methods that the applet context can use to * initialize, start, and stop the applet. * * @since 1.0 * @see java.awt */ package java.lang.applet;
Note that while the comment separators /**
and
/*
must be present, the leading asterisks on the intermediate lines
can be omitted. package.html
- This file can
contain a package comment of the following structure -- the comment
is placed in the <body>
element:
File: java/applet/package.html
<HTML> <BODY> Provides the classes necessary to create an applet and the classes an applet uses to communicate with its applet context. <p> The applet framework involves two entities: the applet and the applet context. An applet is an embeddable window (see the {@link java.awt.Panel} class) with a few extra methods that the applet context can use to initialize, start, and stop the applet. @since 1.0 @see java.awt </BODY> </HTML>
Notice this is just a normal HTML file and does not include a
package declaration. The content of the package comment file is
written in HTML, like all other comments, with one exception: The
documentation comment should not include the comment separators
/**
and */
or leading asterisks. When
writing the comment, you should make the first sentence a summary
about the package, and not put a title or any other text between
<body>
and the first sentence. You can include
package tags; as with any documentation
comment, all block tags must appear after the main description. If
you add a @see
tag in a package comment file, it must
have a fully-qualified name. For more details, see the
example of package.html
.
Processing of package comment file - When the Javadoc tool runs, it will automatically look for the package comment file; if found, the Javadoc tool does the following:
package.html
, copies all content between
<body>
and </body>
HTML tags.
You can include a <head>
section to put a
<title>
, source file copyright statement, or
other information, but none of these will appear in the generated
documentation.)To create an overview comment file, you can name the file
anything you want, typically overview.html
and
place it anywhere, typically at the top level of the source tree.
For example, if the source files for the java.applet
package are contained in C:\user\src\java\applet
directory, you could create an overview comment file at
C:\user\src\overview.html
.
Notice you can have multiple overview comment files for the same set of source files, in case you want to run javadoc multiple times on different sets of packages. For example, you could run javadoc once with -private for internal documentation and again without that option for public documentation. In this case, you could describe the documentation as public or internal in the first sentence of each overview comment file.
The content of the overview comment file is one big
documentation comment, written in HTML, like the package comment
file described previously. See that description for details. To
re-iterate, when writing the comment, you should make the first
sentence a summary about the application or set of packages, and
not put a title or any other text between <body>
and the first sentence. You can include overview tags; as with any documentation
comment, all tags except in-line tags, such as
{@link}
, must appear after the main description. If
you add a @see
tag, it must have a fully-qualified
name.
When you run the Javadoc tool, you specify the overview comment file name with the -overview option. The file is then processed similar to that of a package comment file.
<body>
and
</body>
tags for processing.To include unprocessed files, put them in a directory called
doc-files
which can be a subdirectory of any
package directory that contains source files. You can have one such
subdirectory for each package. You might include images, example
code, source files, .class files, applets and HTML files. For
example, if you want to include the image of a button
button.gif
in the java.awt.Button
class
documentation, you place that file in the
/home/user/src/java/awt/doc-files/
directory. Notice
the doc-files
directory should not be located at
/home/user/src/java/doc-files
because
java
is not a package -- that is, it does not directly
contain any source files.
All links to these unprocessed files must be hard-coded, because
the Javadoc tool does not look at the files -- it simply copies the
directory and all its contents to the destination. For example, the
link in the Button.java
doc comment might look
like:
/** * This button looks like this: * <img src="doc-files/Button.gif"> */
If you run the Javadoc tool by explicitly passing in individual source filenames, you can deliberately omit test and templates files and prevent them from being processed. However, if you are passing in package names or wildcards, you need to follow certain rules to ensure these test files and templates files are not processed.
Test files differ from template files in that the former are legal, compilable source files, while the latter are not, but may end with ".java".
Test files - Often developers want to put compilable,
runnable test files for a given package in the same
directory as the source files for that package. But they want the
test files to belong to a package other than the source file
package, such as the unnamed package (so the test files have no
package statement or a different package statement from the
source). In this scenario, when the source is being documented by
specifying its package name specified on the command line, the test
files will cause warnings or errors. You need to put such test
files in a subdirectory. For example, if you want to add test files
for source files in com.package1
, put them in a
subdirectory that would be an invalid package name (because it
contains a hyphen):
com/package1/test-files/The test directory will be skipped by the Javadoc tool with no warnings.
If your test files contain doc comments, you can set up a
separate run of the Javadoc tool to produce documentation of the
test files by passing in their test source filenames with
wildcards, such as com/package1/test-files/*.java
.
Templates for source files - Template files have names
that often end in ".java" and are not compilable. If you have a
template for a source file that you want to keep in the source
directory, you can name it with a dash (such as
Buffer-Template.java
), or any other illegal Java
character, to prevent it from being processed. This relies on the
fact that the Javadoc tool will only process source files whose
name, when stripped of the ".java" suffix, is actually a legal
class name (see information about Identifiers in the
Java Language Specification).
package-summary.html
). Files in the latter group
contain hyphens to prevent filename conflicts with those in the
former group.
Basic Content Pages
.html
) for each class or interface it
is documenting. package-summary.html
) for
each package it is documenting. The Javadoc tool will include any
HTML text provided in a file named package.html
or
package-info.java
in the package directory of the
source tree. overview-summary.html
)
for the entire set of packages. This is the front page of the
generated document. The Javadoc tool will include any HTML text
provided in a file specified with the -overview
option. Note that this file
is created only if you pass into javadoc two or more package names.
For further explanation, see HTML
Frames.)Cross-Reference Pages
overview-tree.html
). To view this, click on
"Overview" in the navigation bar, then click on "Tree". package-tree.html
) To view this, go to a particular
package, class or interface page; click "Tree" to display the
hierarchy for that package. package-use.html
) and a separate one for each class
and interface
(class-use/
classname.html
). This
page describes what packages, classes, methods, constructors and
fields use any part of the given class, interface or package. Given
a class or interface A, its "use" page includes subclasses of A,
fields declared as A, methods that return A, and methods and
constructors with parameters of type A. You can access this page by
first going to the package, class or interface, then clicking on
the "Use" link in the navigation bar. deprecated-list.html
) listing all deprecated names.
(A deprecated name is not recommended for use, generally due to
improvements, and a replacement name is usually given. Deprecated
APIs may be removed in future implementations.) constant-values.html
) for the values of static
fields. serialized-form.html
) for information about
serializable and externalizable classes. Each such class has a
description of its serialization fields and methods. This
information is of interest to re-implementors, not to developers
using the API. While there is no link in the navigation bar, you
can get to this information by going to any serialized class and
clicking "Serialized Form" in the "See also" section of the class
comment. The standard doclet automatically generates a serialized form page: any class (public
or non-public) that implements Serializable is included, along with
readObject
and writeObject
methods, the
fields that are serialized, and the doc comments from the @serial
, @serialField
, and @serialData
tags. Public
serializable classes can be excluded by marking them (or their
package) with @serial exclude
, and package-private
serializable classes can be included by marking them (or their
package) with @serial include
. As of 1.4, you can
generate the complete serialized form for public and private
classes by running javadoc without specifying the
-private
option.index-*.html
) of all class,
interface, constructor, field and method names, alphabetically
arranged. This is internationalized for Unicode and can be
generated as a single file or as a separate file for each starting
character (such as A-Z for English).Support Files
help-doc.html
) that describes
the navigation bar and the above pages. You can provide your own
custom help file to override the default using -helpfile
.*-frame.html
)
containing lists of packages, classes and interfaces, used when
HTML frames are being displayed. package-list
), used by
the -link
and -linkoffline
options. This
is a text file, not HTML, and is not reachable through any links.
stylesheet.css
) that
controls a limited amount of color, font family, font size, font
style and positioning on the generated pages. The Javadoc tool will generate either two or three HTML frames,
as shown in the figure below. It creates the minimum necessary
number of frames by omitting the list of packages if there is only
one package (or no packages). That is, when you pass a single
package name or source files (*.java) belonging to a single package
as arguments into the javadoc command, it will create only one
frame (C) in the left-hand column -- the list of classes. When you
pass into javadoc two or more package names, it creates a third
frame (P) listing all packages, as well as an overview page
(Detail). This overview page has the filename
overview-summary.html
. Thus, this file is created only
if you pass in two or more package names. You can bypass frames by
clicking on the "No Frames" link or entering at
overview-summary.html.
If you are unfamiliar with HTML frames, you should be aware that frames can have focus for printing and scrolling. To give a frame focus, click on it. Then on many browsers the arrow keys and page keys will scroll that frame, and the print menu command will print it.
Load one of the following two files as the starting page depending on whether you want HTML frames or not:
index.html
(for frames)overview-summary.html
(for no frames)The generated class and interface files are organized in the same directory hierarchy that Java source files and class files are organized. This structure is one directory per subpackage.
For example, the document generated for the class
java.applet.Applet
class would be located at
java\applet\Applet.html
. The file structure for the
java.applet package follows, given that the destination directory
is named apidocs
. All files that contain the word
"frame" appear in the upper-left or lower-left frames, as noted.
All other HTML files appear in the right-hand frame.
*
) indicate the files and directories that
are omitted when the arguments to javadoc are source
filenames (*.java) rather than package names. Also when arguments
are source filenames, package-list
is created but is
empty. The doc-files directory will not be created in the
destination unless it exists in the source tree.apidocs Top directory index.html Initial page that sets up HTML frames * overview-summary.html Lists all packages with first sentence summaries overview-tree.html Lists class hierarchy for all packages deprecated-list.html Lists deprecated API for all packages constant-values.html Lists values of static fields for all packages serialized-form.html Lists serialized form for all packages * overview-frame.html Lists all packages, used in upper-left frame allclasses-frame.html Lists all classes for all packages, used in lower-left frame help-doc.html Lists user help for how these pages are organized index-all.html Default index created without -splitindex option index-files Directory created with -splitindex option index-<number>.html Index files created with -splitindex option package-list Lists package names, used only for resolving external refs stylesheet.css HTML style sheet for defining fonts, colors and positions java Package directory applet Subpackage directory Applet.html Page for Applet class AppletContext.html Page for AppletContext interface AppletStub.html Page for AppletStub interface AudioClip.html Page for AudioClip interface * package-summary.html Lists classes with first sentence summaries for this package * package-frame.html Lists classes in this package, used in lower left-hand frame * package-tree.html Lists class hierarchy for this package package-use Lists where this package is used doc-files Directory holding image and example files class-use Directory holding pages API is used Applet.html Page for uses of Applet class AppletContext.html Page for uses of AppletContext interface AppletStub.html Page for uses of AppletStub interface AudioClip.html Page for uses of AudioClip interface src-html Source code directory java Package directory applet Subpackage directory Applet.html Page for Applet source code AppletContext.html Page for AppletContext source code AppletStub.html Page for AppletStub source code AudioClip.html Page for AudioClip source code
Boolean
class is:
public final class Boolean
extends Object
implements Serializable
and the declaration for the Boolean.valueOf
method
is:
public static Boolean valueOf(String s)
The Javadoc tool can include the modifiers public
,
protected
, private
,
abstract
, final
, static
,
transient
, and volatile
, but not
synchronized
or native
. These last two
modifiers are considered implementation detail and not part of the
API specification.
Rather than relying on the keyword synchronized
,
APIs should document their concurrency semantics in the comment's
main description, as in "a single Enumeration
cannot
be used by multiple threads concurrently". The document should not
describe how to achieve these semantics. As another example, while
Hashtable
should be thread-safe, there's no reason to
specify that we achieve this by synchronizing all of its exported
methods. We should reserve the right to synchronize internally at
the bucket level, thus offering higher concurrency.
/**
that begin the comment and the characters
*/
that end it. Leading
asterisks are allowed on each line and are described further
below. The text in a comment can continue onto multiple lines.
/** * This is the typical format of a simple documentation comment * that spans two lines. */To save space you can put a comment on one line:
/** This comment takes up only one line. */Placement of comments - Documentation comments are recognized only when placed immediately before class, interface, constructor, method, or field declarations -- see the class example, method example, and field example. Documentation comments placed in the body of a method are ignored. Only one documentation comment per declaration statement is recognized by the Javadoc tool.
A common mistake is to put an import
statement
between the class comment and the class declaration. Avoid this, as
the Javadoc tool will ignore the class comment.
/** * This is the class comment for the class Whatever. */ import com.sun; // MISTAKE - Important not to put import statement here public class Whatever { }A doc comment is composed of a main description followed by a tag section - The main description begins after the starting delimiter
/**
and continues until the tag section. The tag
section starts with the first block tag, which is defined by
the first @
character that begins a line (ignoring
leading asterisks, white space, and leading separator
/**
). It is possible to have a comment with only a tag
section and no main description. The main description cannot
continue after the tag section begins. The argument to a tag can
span multiple lines. There can be any number of tags – some
types of tags can be repeated while others cannot. For example,
this @see
starts the tag section:
/** * This sentence would hold the main description for this doc comment. * @see java.lang.Object */Block tags and in-line tags - A tag is a special keyword within a doc comment that the Javadoc tool can process. There are two kinds of tags: block tags, which appear as
@tag
(also known as "standalone tags"), and in-line tags, which appear within curly braces,
as {@tag}
. To be interpreted, a block tag must appear
at the beginning of a line, ignoring leading asterisks, white
space, and separator (/**
). This means you can use the
@
character elsewhere in the text and it will not be
interpreted as the start of a tag. If you want to start a line with
the @
character and not have it be interpreted, use
the HTML entity @
. Each block tag has
associated text, which includes any text following the tag up to,
but not including, either the next tag, or the end of the doc
comment. This associated text can span multiple lines. An in-line
tag is allowed and interpreted anywhere that text is allowed. The
following example contains the block tag @deprecated
and in-line tag {@link}
.
/** * @deprecated As of JDK 1.1, replaced by {@link #setBounds(int,int,int,int)} */
Comments are written in HTML - The text must be written in HTML, in that they should use HTML entities and can use HTML tags. You can use whichever version of HTML your browser supports; we have written the standard doclet to generate HTML 3.2-compliant code elsewhere (outside of the documentation comments) with the inclusion of cascading style sheets and frames. (We preface each generated file with "HTML 4.0" because of the frame sets.)
For example, entities for the less-than (<
) and
greater-than (>
) symbols should be written
<
and >
. Likewise, the
ampersand (&
) should be written
&
. The bold HTML tag <b>
is
shown in the following example.
Here is a doc comment:
/** * This is a <b>doc</b> comment. * @see java.lang.Object */
Leading
asterisks - When javadoc parses a doc comment, leading asterisk
(*
) characters on each line are discarded; blanks and
tabs preceding the initial asterisk (*
) characters are
also discarded. Starting with 1.4, if you omit the leading asterisk
on a line, the leading white space is no longer removed. This
enables you to paste code examples directly into a doc comment
inside a <PRE>
tag, and its indentation will be
honored. Spaces are generally interpreted by browsers more
uniformly than tabs. Indentation is relative to the left margin
(rather than the separator /**
or
<PRE>
tag).
First sentence - The first sentence of each doc comment should be a summary sentence, containing a concise but complete description of the declared entity. This sentence ends at the first period that is followed by a blank, tab, or line terminator, or at the first block tag. The Javadoc tool copies this first sentence to the member summary at the top of the HTML page.
Declaration with multiple fields - Java allows declaring multiple fields in a single statement, but this statement can have only one documentation comment, which is copied for all fields. Therefore if you want individual documentation comments for each field, you must declare each field in a separate statement. For example, the following documentation comment doesn't make sense written as a single declaration and would be better handled as two declarations:
/** * The horizontal and vertical distances of point (x,y) */ public int x, y; // Avoid thisThe Javadoc tool generates the following documentation from the above code:
public int x
public int y
@return
, @param
or @throws
tag is missing from a method comment, the Javadoc tool copies the
corresponding main description or tag comment from the method it
overrides or implements (if any), according to the algorithm below.
More specifically, when a @param
tag for a
particular parameter is missing, then the comment for that
parameter is copied from the method further up the inheritance
hierarchy. When a @throws
tag for a particular
exception is missing, the @throws
tag is copied
only if that exception is declared.
This behavior contrasts with version 1.3 and earlier, where the presence of any main description or tag would prevent all comments from being inherited.
{@inheritDoc}
in a method main
description or @return
, @param
or
@throws
tag comment – the corresponding
inherited main description or tag comment is copied into that
spot.The source file for the inherited method need only be on the path specified by -sourcepath for the doc comment to actually be available to copy. Neither the class nor its package needs to be passed in on the command line. This contrasts with 1.3.x and earlier releases, where the class had to be a documented class
Inherit from classes and interfaces - Inheriting of comments occurs in all three possible cases of inheritance from classes and interfaces:
In the first two cases, for method overrides, the Javadoc tool generates a subheading "Overrides" in the documentation for the overriding method, with a link to the method it is overriding, whether or not the comment is inherited.
In the third case, when a method in a given class implements a method in an interface, the Javadoc tool generates a subheading "Specified by" in the documentation for the overriding method, with a link to the method it is implementing. This happens whether or not the comment is inherited.
Algorithm for Inheriting Method Comments - If a method does not have a doc comment, or has an {@inheritDoc} tag, the Javadoc tool searches for an applicable comment using the following algorithm, which is designed to find the most specific applicable doc comment, giving preference to interfaces over superclasses:
@
) and are case-sensitive –
they must be typed with the uppercase and lowercase letters as
shown. A tag must start at the beginning of a line (after any
leading spaces and an optional asterisk) or it is treated as normal
text. By convention, tags with the same name are grouped together.
For example, put all @see
tags together.
@tag
.{@tag}
.The current tags are:
| Tag | Introduced in JDK/SDK |
|---|---|
@author |
1.0 |
{@code} |
1.5 |
{@docRoot} |
1.3 |
@deprecated |
1.0 |
@exception |
1.0 |
{@inheritDoc} |
1.4 |
{@link} |
1.2 |
{@linkplain} |
1.4 |
{@literal} |
1.5 |
@param |
1.0 |
@return |
1.0 |
@see |
1.0 |
@serial |
1.2 |
@serialData |
1.2 |
@serialField |
1.2 |
@since |
1.1 |
@throws |
1.2 |
{@value} |
1.4 |
@version |
1.0 |
For custom tags, see the -tag option.
@author
name-text@author
tags. You can
specify one name per @author
tag or multiple names per
tag. In the former case, the Javadoc tool inserts a comma
(,
) and space between names. In the latter case, the
entire text is simply copied to the generated document without
being parsed. Therefore, you can use multiple names per line if you
want a localized name separator other than comma.
For more details, see Where Tags Can Be Used and writing @author tags.
@deprecated
deprecated-textThe first sentence of deprecated-text should at least
tell the user when the API was deprecated and what to use as a
replacement. The Javadoc tool copies just the first sentence to the
summary section and index. Subsequent sentences can also explain
why it has been deprecated. You should include a
{@link}
tag (for Javadoc 1.2 or later) that points to
the replacement API:
For more details, see writing @deprecated tags.
{@link}
tag. This
creates the link in-line, where you want it. For example:
/** * @deprecated As of JDK 1.1, replaced by {@link #setBounds(int,int,int,int)} */
@see
tag (which cannot be in-line) for each
@deprecated
tag.For more about deprecation, see The @deprecated tag.
{@code
text}
<code>{@literal}</code>
.
Displays text in code
font without
interpreting the text as HTML markup or nested javadoc tags. This
enables you to use regular angle brackets (<
and
>
) instead of the HTML entities
(<
and >
) in doc comments,
such as in parameter types (<Object>
),
inequalities (3 < 4
), or arrows
(<-
). For example, the doc comment text:
{@code A<B>C}
displays in the generated HTML page unchanged, as:
A<B>C
The noteworthy point is that the <B>
is not
interpreted as bold and is in code font.
If you want the same functionality without the code font, use
{@literal}
.
{@docRoot}
This {@docRoot}
tag can be used both on the command
line and in a doc comment: This tag is valid in all doc comments:
overview, package, class, interface, constructor, method and field,
including the text portion of any tag (such as @return, @param and
@deprecated).
javadoc -bottom '<a<EMAIL_ADDRESS>- When using
{@docRoot}
this way in a make file,
some makefile programs require special escaping for the brace {}
characters. For example, the Inprise MAKE version 5.2 running on
Windows requires double braces: {{@docRoot}}
. It also
requires double (rather than single) quotes to enclose arguments to
options such as -bottom
(with the quotes around the
href
argument omitted)./** * See the <a<EMAIL_ADDRESS>*/
<a<EMAIL_ADDRESS>resolve to:
<a href="../../copyright.html"> for java/lang/Object.javaand
<a href="../../../copyright.html"> for java/lang/ref/Reference.java
@exception
class-name description@exception
tag is a synonym for @throws
.
{@inheritDoc}
This tag is valid only in these places in a doc comment:
See Automatic Copying of Method Comments for a more precise description of how comments are found in the inheritance hierarchy. Note that if this tag is missing, the comment is or is not automatically inherited according to rules described in that section.
{@link
package.class#
member
label}
This tag is very simliar to @see
– both require the same references and accept exactly the
same syntax for package.class#
member
and label. The main difference is that
{@link}
generates an in-line link rather than placing
the link in the "See Also" section. Also, the {@link}
tag begins and ends with curly braces to separate it from the rest
of the in-line text. If you need to use "}" inside the label, use
the HTML entity notation }
There is no limit to the number of {@link}
tags
allowed in a sentence. You can use this tag in the main description part of any documentation
comment or in the text portion of any tag (such as @deprecated,
@return or @param).
For example, here is a comment that refers to the
getComponentAt(int, int)
method:
Use the {@link #getComponentAt(int, int) getComponentAt} method.From this, the standard doclet would generate the following HTML (assuming it refers to another class in the same package):
Use the <a href="Component.html#getComponentAt(int, int)">getComponentAt</a> method.Which appears on the web page as:
Use the getComponentAt method.You can extend
{@link}
to link to classes not being
documented by using the -link
option.
For more details, see writing {@link} tags.
{@linkplain
package.class#
member
label}
{@link}
, except the link's label is
displayed in plain text than code font. Useful when the label is
plain text. Example:
Refer to {@linkplain add() the overridden method}.This would display as:
Refer to the overridden method.
{@literal
text}
<
and >
) instead of
the HTML entities (<
and >
)
in doc comments, such as in parameter types
(<Object>
), inequalities (3 <
4
), or arrows (<-
). For example, the doc
comment text:
{@literal A<B>C}
displays unchanged in the generated HTML page in your browser, as:
A<B>C
<B>
is not
interpreted as bold (and it is not in code font).
If you want the same functionality but with the text in code
font, use {@code}
.
@param
parameter-name
descriptionThe parameter-name can be the name of a parameter in a method or constructor, or the name of a type parameter of a class, method or constructor. Use angle brackets around this parameter name to specify the use of a type parameter.
Example of a type parameter of a class:
/** * @param <E> Type of element stored in a list */ public interface List<E> extends Collection<E> { }
Example of a type parameter of a method:
/** * @param string the string to be converted * @param type the type to convert the string to * @param <T> the type of the element * @param <V> the value of the element */ <T, V extends T> V convert(String string, Class<T> type) { }For more details, see writing @param tags.
@return
descriptionFor more details, see writing @return tags.
@see
reference@see
tags, which are all grouped under the same
heading. The @see
tag has three variations; the third
form below is the most common. This tag is valid in any doc
comment: overview, package, class, interface, constructor, method
or field. For inserting an in-line link within a sentence to a
package, class or member, see {@link}
.
@see
"
string""
) as
the first character. For example:
@see "The Java Programming Language"This generates text such as:
See Also: "The Java Programming Language"
@see
<a
href="
URL#value">
label</a>
<
) as the first character. For
example:
@see <a href="spec.html#section">Java Spec</a>This generates a link such as:
See Also: Java Spec
@see
package.class#
member
labelOnly in version 1.2, just the name but not the label would automatically appear in <code> HTML tags, Starting with 1.2.2, the <code> is always included around the visible text, whether or not a label is used.
#
member
is any valid program element name that is
referenced – a package,
class, interface, constructor, method or field name – except
that the character ahead of the member name should be a hash
character (#
). The class represents any
top-level or nested class or interface. The member
represents any constructor, method or field (not a nested class or
interface). If this name is in the documented classes, the Javadoc
tool will automatically create a link to it. To create links to
external referenced
classes, use the -link
option.
Use either of the other two @see
forms for referring
to documentation of a name that does not belong to a referenced
class. This argument is described at greater length below under
Specifying a Name.#
member and
label. A space inside parentheses does not indicate the
start of a label, so spaces may be used between parameters in a
method.Example - In this example, an @see
tag (in
the Character
class) refers to the equals
method in the String
class. The tag includes both
arguments: the name "String#equals(Object)
" and the
label "equals
".
/** * @see String#equals(Object) equals */The standard doclet produces HTML something like this:
<dl> <dt><b>See Also:</b> <dd><a href="../../java/lang/String#equals(java.lang.Object)"><code>equals<code></a> </dl>Which looks something like this in a browser, where the label is the visible link text:
See Also: equals
Specifying a name - This
package.class#
member name can be
either fully-qualified, such as
java.lang.String#toUpperCase()
or not, such as
String#toUpperCase()
or #toUpperCase()
.
If less than fully-qualified, the Javadoc tool uses the normal Java
compiler search order to find it, further described below in
Search order for @see. The name can
contain whitespace within parentheses, such as between method
arguments.
Of course the advantage of providing shorter, "partially-qualified" names is that they are shorter to type and there is less clutter in the source code. The following table shows the different forms of the name, where Class can be a class or interface, Type can be a class, interface, array, or primitive, and method can be a method or constructor.
Typical forms for @see
package.class#member |
|---|
Referencing a member of the current
class@see # field@see # method(Type,
Type,...)@see # method(Type argname,
Type argname,...)@see # constructor(Type,
Type,...)@see # constructor(Type
argname, Type argname,...)Referencing another class in the current or imported packages @see
Class# field@see
Class# method(Type,
Type,...)@see
Class# method(Type argname, Type
argname,...)@see
Class# constructor(Type,
Type,...)@see
Class# constructor(Type argname, Type
argname,...)@see Class.NestedClass@see ClassReferencing an element in another package (fully qualified) @see
package.Class# field@see
package.Class# method(Type,
Type,...)@see
package.Class# method(Type argname,
Type argname,...)@see
package.Class# constructor(Type,
Type,...)@see
package.Class# constructor(Type
argname, Type argname,...)@see package.Class.NestedClass@see package.Class@see package |
The following notes apply to the above table:
getValue
, and if there is no
field with the same name, the Javadoc tool will correctly create a
link to it, but will print a warning message reminding you to add
the parentheses and arguments. If this method is overloaded, the
Javadoc tool will link to the first method its search encounters,
which is unspecified..
inner, not simply
inner, for all forms.#
), rather than a
dot (.
) separates a member from its class. This
enables the Javadoc tool to resolve ambiguities, since the dot also
separates classes, nested classes, packages, and subpackages.
However, the Javadoc tool is generally lenient and will properly
parse a dot if you know there is no ambiguity, though it will print
a warning. Search
order for @see - the Javadoc tool will process a
@see
tag that appears in a source file (.java),
package file (package.html or package-info.java) or overview file
(overview.html). In the latter two files, you must fully-qualify
the name you supply with @see
. In a source file, you
can specify a name that is fully-qualified or
partially-qualified.
When the Javadoc tool encounters a @see
tag in a
.java
file that is not fully qualified, it
searches for the specified name in the same order as the Java
compiler would (except the Javadoc tool will not detect certain
namespace ambiguities, since it assumes the source code is free of
these errors). This search order is formally defined in the
Java Language Specification.
The Javadoc tool searches for that name through all related and
imported classes and packages. In particular, it searches in this
order:
The Javadoc tool continues to search recursively through steps 1-3 for each class it encounters until it finds a match. That is, after it searches through the current class and its enclosing class E, it will search through E's superclasses before E's enclosing classes. In steps 4 and 5, the Javadoc tool does not search classes or interfaces within a package in any specified order (that order depends on the particular compiler). In step 5, the Javadoc tool looks in java.lang, since that is automatically imported by all programs.
The Javadoc tool does not necessarily look in subclasses, nor
will it look in other packages even if their documentation is being
generated in the same run. For example, if the @see
tag is in the java.awt.event.KeyEvent
class and refers
to a name in the java.awt
package, javadoc does not
look in that package unless that class imports it.
How a name is
displayed - If label is omitted, then
package.class.member appears. In general, it is suitably
shortened relative to the current class and package. By
"shortened", we mean the Javadoc tool displays only the minimum
name necessary. For example, if the
String.toUpperCase()
method contains references to a
member of the same class and to a member of a different class, the
class name is displayed only in the latter case, as shown in the
following table.
Use -noqualifier to globally remove the package names.
| Type of Reference | Example in String.toUpperCase() |
Displays As |
|---|---|---|
@see tag refers to member of the same class, same
package |
@see String#toLowerCase() |
toLowerCase() (omits the package and class names) |
@see tag refers to member of a different class,
same package |
@see Character#toLowerCase(char) |
Character.toLowerCase(char) (omits the package name, includes the class name) |
@see tag refers to member of a different class,
different package |
@see java.io.File#exists() |
java.io.File.exists() (includes the package and class names) |
Examples
of @see
The comment to the right shows how the name would be displayed if
the @see
tag is in a class in another package, such as
java.applet.Applet
.
See also: @see java.lang.String // String @see java.lang.String The String class // The String class @see String // String @see String#equals(Object) // String.equals(Object) @see String#equals // String.equals(java.lang.Object) @see java.lang.Object#wait(long) // java.lang.Object.wait(long) @see Character#MAX_RADIX // Character.MAX_RADIX @see <a href="spec.html">Java Spec</a> // Java Spec @see "The Java Programming Language" // "The Java Programming Language"You can extend
@see
to link to classes not being
documented by using the -link
option.
For more details, see writing @see tags.
@serial
field-description
| include | exclude
An optional field-description should explain the meaning of the field and list the acceptable values. If needed, the description can span multiple lines. The standard doclet adds this information to the serialized form page.
If a serializable field was added to a class some time after the class was made serializable, a statement should be added to its main description to identify at which version it was added.
The include
and exclude
arguments
identify whether a class or package should be included or excluded
from the serialized form page. They work as follows:
Serializable
is included unless that class (or
its package) is marked @serial exclude
.Serializable
is excluded unless that class (or
its package) is marked @serial include
.Examples: The javax.swing
package is marked
@serial exclude
(in package.html
or
package-info.java
). The public class
java.security.BasicPermission
is marked @serial
exclude
. The package-private class
java.util.PropertyPermissionCollection
is marked
@serial include
.
The tag @serial at a class level overrides @serial at a package level.
For more information about how to use these tags, along with an example, see "Documenting Serializable Fields and Data for a Class," Section 1.6 of the Java Object Serialization Specification. Also see the Serialization FAQ, which covers common questions, such as "Why do I see javadoc warnings stating that I am missing @serial tags for private fields if I am not running javadoc with the -private switch?". Also see Sun's criteria for including classes in the serialized form specification.
@serialField
field-name field-type
field-descriptionObjectStreamField
component of a
Serializable
class's
serialPersistentFields
member. One
@serialField
tag should be used for each
ObjectStreamField
component.
@serialData
data-descriptionwriteObject
method
and all data (including base classes) written by the
Externalizable.writeExternal
method.
The @serialData
tag can be used in the doc comment
for the writeObject
, readObject
,
writeExternal
, readExternal
,
writeReplace
, and readResolve
methods.
@since
since-text@since 1.5For source code in the Java platform, this tag indicates the version of the Java platform API specification (not necessarily when it was added to the reference implementation). Multiple @since tags are allowed and are treated like multiple @author tags. You could use multiple tags if the prgram element is used by more than one API.
@throws
class-name
description@throws
and @exception
tags are
synonyms. Adds a "Throws" subheading to the generated
documentation, with the class-name and
description text. The class-name is the name
of the exception that may be thrown by the method. This tag is
valid only in the doc comment for a method or constructor. If this
class is not fully-specified, the Javadoc tool uses the search order to look up this class. Multiple
@throws
tags can be used in a given doc comment for
the same or different exceptions.
To ensure that all checked exceptions are documented, if a
@throws
tag does not exist for an exception in the
throws clause, the Javadoc tool automatically adds that exception
to the HTML output (with no description) as if it were documented
with @throws tag.
The @throws
documentation is copied from an
overridden method to a subclass only when the exception is
explicitly declared in the overridden method. The same is true for
copying from an interface method to an implementing method. You can
use {@inheritDoc} to force @throws to
inherit documentation.
For more details, see writing @throws tags.
{@value
package.class#field}
{@value}
is used (without any argument) in
the doc comment of a static field, it displays the value of that
constant:
/** * The value of this constant is {@value}. */ public static final String SCRIPT_START = "<script>"When used with argument package.class#field in any doc comment, it displays the value of the specified constant:
/** * Evaluates the script starting with {@value #SCRIPT_START}. */ public String evalScript(String script) { }The argument package.class#field takes a form identical to that of the @see argument, except that the member must be a static field.
These values of these constants are also displayed on the Constant Field Values page.
@version
version-textA doc comment may contain multiple @version
tags.
If it makes sense, you can specify one version number per
@version
tag or multiple version numbers per tag. In
the former case, the Javadoc tool inserts a comma (,
)
and space between names. In the latter case, the entire text is
simply copied to the generated document without being parsed.
Therefore, you can use multiple names per line if you want a
localized name separator other than comma.
For more details, see writing @version tags.
@see
,
@since
, @deprecated
,
{@link}
, {@linkplain}
, and
{@docroot}
.overview.html
). Like in any other documentation
comments, these tags must appear after the main description.
NOTE - The {@link}
tag has a bug in overview
documents in version 1.2 – the text appears properly but has
no link. The {@docRoot}
tag does not currently work in
overview documents.
| Overview Tags |
|---|
@see |
@since |
@author |
@version |
{@link} |
{@linkplain} |
{@docRoot} |
package.html
or package-info.java
). The
@serial
tag can only be used here with the
include
or exclude
argument.
| Package Tags |
|---|
@see |
@since |
@serial |
@author |
@version |
{@link} |
{@linkplain} |
{@docRoot} |
@serial
tag can only be
used here with the include
or exclude
argument.
| Class/Interface Tags |
|---|
@see |
@since |
@deprecated |
@serial |
@author |
@version |
{@link} |
{@linkplain} |
{@docRoot} |
/** * A class representing a window on the screen. * For example: * <pre> * Window win = new Window(parent); * win.show(); * </pre> * * @author Sami Shaio * @version 1.15, 13 Dec 2006 * @see java.awt.BaseWindow * @see java.awt.Button */ class Window extends BaseWindow { ... }
| Field Tags |
|---|
@see |
@since |
@deprecated |
@serial |
@serialField |
{@link} |
{@linkplain} |
{@docRoot} |
{@value} |
/** * The X-coordinate of the component. * * @see #getLocation() */ int x = 1263732;
@return
, which cannot appear in a constructor, and
{@inheritDoc}
, which has certain
restrictions. The @serialData
tag can only be used
in the doc comment for certain serialization
methods.
| Method/Constructor Tags |
|---|
@see |
@since |
@deprecated |
@param |
@return |
@throws and @exception |
@serialData |
{@link} |
{@linkplain} |
{@inheritDoc} |
{@docRoot} |
/** * Returns the character at the specified index. An index * ranges from <code>0</code> to <code>length() - 1</code>. * * @param index the index of the desired character. * @return the desired character. * @exception StringIndexOutOfRangeException * if the index is not in the range <code>0</code> * to <code>length()-1</code>. * @see java.lang.Character#charValue() */ public char charAt(int index) { ... }
The options are:
overview-summary.html
). The path/filename is
relative to the current directory.
While you can use any name you want for filename and
place it anywhere you want for path, a typical thing to do
is to name it overview.html
and place it in the source
tree at the directory that contains the topmost package
directories. In this location, no path is needed when
documenting packages, since -sourcepath
will point to
this file. For example, if the source tree for the
java.lang
package is
C:\src\classes\java\lang\
, then you could place the
overview file at C:\src\classes\overview.html
. See
Real World Example.
For information about the file specified by path/filename, see overview comment file.
Note that the overview page is created only if you pass into javadoc two or more package names. For further explanation, see HTML Frames.)
The title on the overview page is set by -doctitle
.
-doclet
option is not used, javadoc uses the
standard doclet for generating the default HTML format. This class
must contain the start(Root)
method. The path to this
starting class is defined by the -docletpath
option.
For example, to call the MIF doclet, use:
-doclet com.sun.tools.doclets.mif.MIFDoclet
For full, working examples of running a particular doclet, see the MIF Doclet documentation.
-doclet
option) and any jar files it depends
on. If the starting class file is in a jar file, then this
specifies the path to that jar file, as shown in the example below.
You can specify an absolute path or a path relative to the current
directory. If classpathlist contains multiple paths or
jar files, they should be separated with a colon (:) on Solaris and
a semi-colon (;) on Windows. This option is not necessary if the
doclet starting class is already in the search path.
Example of path to jar file that contains the starting doclet class file. Notice the jar filename is included.
-docletpath C:\user\mifdoclet\lib\mifdoclet.jarExample of path to starting doclet class file. Notice the class filename is omitted.
-docletpath C:\user\mifdoclet\classes\com\sun\tools\doclets\mif\For full, working examples of running a particular doclet, see the MIF Doclet documentation.
| Release Value | Notes |
|---|---|
| 1.5 | javadoc accepts code containing generics and other language features introduced in JDK 1.5. The compiler defaults to the 1.5 behavior if the -source flag is not used. |
| 1.4 | javadoc accepts code containing assertions, which were introduced in JDK 1.4. |
| 1.3 | javadoc does not support assertions, generics, or other language features introduced after JDK 1.3. |
Use the value of release corresponding to that used when compiling the code with javac.
.java
) when passing package names or
-subpackages
into the javadoc
command.
The sourcepathlist can contain multiple paths by separating
them with a semicolon (;
). The Javadoc tool will
search in all subdirectories of the specified paths. Note that this
option is not only used to locate the source files being
documented, but also to find source files that are not being
documented but whose comments are inherited by the source files
being documented.
Note that you can use the -sourcepath
option only
when passing package names into the javadoc command – it will
not locate .java
files passed into the
javadoc
command. (To locate .java
files,
cd to that directory or include the path ahead of each file, as
shown at Documenting One or More
Classes.) If -sourcepath
is omitted, javadoc uses
the class path to find the source files (see -classpath). Therefore, the default -sourcepath is
the value of class path. If -classpath is omitted and you are
passing package names into javadoc, it looks in the current
directory (and subdirectories) for the source files.
Set sourcepathlist to the root directory of the
source tree for the package you are documenting. For example,
suppose you want to document a package called
com.mypackage
whose source files are located at:
C:\user\src\com\mypackage\*.javaIn this case you would specify the
sourcepath
to
C:\user\src
, the directory that contains
com\mypackage
, and then supply the package name
com.mypackage
:
C:> javadoc -sourcepath C:\user\src com.mypackageThis is easy to remember by noticing that if you concatenate the value of sourcepath and the package name together and change the dot to a backslash "\", you end up with the full path to the package:
C:\user\src\com\mypackage
.
To point to two source paths:
C:> javadoc -sourcepath C:\user1\src;C:\user2\src com.mypackage
.class
files) – these are the documented classes plus any classes
referenced by those classes. The classpathlist can contain
multiple paths by separating them with a semicolon
(;
). The Javadoc tool will search in all
subdirectories of the specified paths. Follow the instructions in
class path documentation for
specifying classpathlist.
If -sourcepath
is omitted, the Javadoc tool uses
-classpath
to find the source files as well as class
files (for backward compatibility). Therefore, if you want to
search for source and class files in separate paths, use both
-sourcepath
and -classpath
.
For example, if you want to document com.mypackage
,
whose source files reside in the directory
C:\user\src\com\mypackage
, and if this package relies
on a library in C:\user\lib
, you would specify:
C:> javadoc -classpath \user\lib -sourcepath \user\src com.mypackageAs with other tools, if you do not specify
-classpath
,
the Javadoc tool uses the CLASSPATH environment variable, if it is
set. If both are not set, the Javadoc tool searches for classes
from the current directory.
For an in-depth description of how the Javadoc tool uses
-classpath
to find user classes as it relates to
extension classes and bootstrap classes, see How Classes Are Found.
As a special convenience, a class path element containing a
basename of *
is considered equivalent to specifying a
list of all the files in the directory with the extension
.jar
or .JAR
(a java program cannot tell
the difference between the two invocations).
For example, if directory foo
contains
a.jar
and b.JAR
, then the class path
element foo/*
is expanded to a
A.jar:b.JAR
, except that the order of jar files is
unspecified. All jar files in the specified directory, even hidden
ones, are included in the list. A classpath entry consisting simply
of *
expands to a list of all the jar files in the
current directory. The CLASSPATH
environment variable,
where defined, will be similarly expanded. Any classpath wildcard
expansion occurs before the Java virtual machine is started –
no Java program will ever see unexpanded wildcards except by
querying the environment. For example; by invoking
System.getenv("CLASSPATH").
java
) or fully qualified
package (such as javax.swing
) that does not need to
contain source files. Arguments are separated by colons (on all
operating systmes). Wildcards are not needed or allowed. Use
-sourcepath
to specify where
to find the packages. This option is smart about not processing
source files that are in the source tree but do not belong to the
packages, as described at processing of source files.
For example:
C:> javadoc -d docs -sourcepath C:\user\src -subpackages java:javax.swingThis command generates documentation for packages named "java" and "javax.swing" and all their subpackages.
You can use -subpackages
in conjunction with
-exclude
to exclude specific
packages.
-subpackages
. It excludes those
packages even if they would otherwise be included by some previous
or later -subpackages
option. For example:
C:> javadoc -sourcepath C:\user\src -subpackages java -exclude java.net:java.langwould include
java.io
, java.util
, and
java.math
(among others), but would exclude packages
rooted at java.net
and java.lang
. Notice
this excludes java.lang.ref
, a subpackage of
java.lang
).
-classpath
(above) for
more details. Separate directories in dirlist with
semicolons (;).
java.text.BreakIterator
to determine the end of the first sentence for English (all other
locales already use BreakIterator
), rather than an
English language, locale-specific algorithm. By first
sentence, we mean the first sentence in the main description
of a package, class or member. This sentence is copied to the
package, class or member summary, and to the alphabetic index.
From JDK 1.2 forward, the BreakIterator class is already used to
determine the end of sentence for all languages but English.
Therefore, the -breakiterator
option has no effect
except for English from 1.2 forward. English has its own default
algorithm:
<P>
.-locale
option must be
placed ahead (to the left) of any options provided by the standard doclet or any
other doclet. Otherwise, the navigation bars will appear in
English. This is the only command-line option that is
order-dependent.
Specifies the locale that javadoc uses when generating
documentation. The argument is the name of the locale, as described
in java.util.Locale documentation, such as en_US
(English, United States) or en_US_WIN
(Windows
variant).
Specifying a locale causes javadoc to choose the resource files of that locale for messages (strings in the navigation bar, headings for lists and tables, help file contents, comments in stylesheet.css, and so forth). It also specifies the sorting order for lists sorted alphabetically, and the sentence separator to determine the end of the first sentence. It does not determine the locale of the doc comment text specified in the source files of the documented classes.
EUCJIS/SJIS
. If this option is not specified, the
platform default converter is used.
Also see -docencoding and -charset.
J
and the flag. For
example, if you need to ensure that the system sets aside 32
megabytes of memory in which to process the generated
documentation, then you would call the -Xmx
option of java as follows
(-Xms
is optional, as it only sets the size of initial
memory, which is useful if you know the minimum amount of memory
required):
C:> javadoc -J-Xmx32m -J-Xms32m com.mypackageTo tell what version of javadoc you are using, call the "
-version
" option of java:
C:> javadoc -J-version java version "1.2" Classic VM (build JDK-1.2-V, green threads, sunwjit)(The version number of the standard doclet appears in its output stream.)
For example, the following generates the documentation for the
package com.mypackage
and saves the results in the
C:\user\doc\
directory:
C:> javadoc -d \user\doc com.mypackage
For example, let's look at what might appear on the "Use" page
for String. The getName()
method in the
java.awt.Font
class returns type String
.
Therefore, getName()
uses String
, and you
will find that method on the "Use" page for
String
.
Note that this documents only uses of the API, not the
implementation. If a method uses String
in its
implementation but does not take a string as an argument or return
a string, that is not considered a "use" of
String
.
You can access the generated "Use" page by first going to the class or package, then clicking on the "Use" link in the navigation bar.
-J-version
option.
C:> javadoc -windowtitle "Java SE Platform" com.mypackage
C:> javadoc -doctitle "Java™" com.mypackage
-doctitle
. This option is being
renamed to make it clear that it defines the document title rather
than the window title.
C:> javadoc -header "<b>Java 2 Platform </b><br>v1.4" com.mypackage
-linkoffline
). The Javadoc tool
reads the package names from the package-list
file and
then links to those packages at that URL. When the Javadoc tool is
run, the extdocURL value is copied literally into the
<A HREF>
links that are created. Therefore,
extdocURL must be the URL to the directory, not to a
file.
You can use an absolute link for extdocURL to enable your
docs to link to a document on any website, or can use a relative
link to link only to a relative location. If relative, the value
you pass in should be the relative path from the destination
directory (specified with -d
) to the directory
containing the packages being linked to.
When specifying an absolute link you normally use an
http:
link. However, if you want to link to a file
system that has no web server, you can use a file:
link – however, do this only if everyone wanting to access
the generated documentation shares the same file system.
In all cases, and on all operating systems, you should use a forward slash as the separator, whether the URL is absolute or relative, and "http:" or "file:" based (as specified in the URL Memo).
-link
http://<host>/<directory>/<directory>/.../<name>
-link
file://<host>/<directory>/<directory>/.../<name>
-link
<directory>/<directory>/.../<name>
You can specify multiple
-link
options in a given javadoc run to link to
multiple documents.
-link
:
-linkoffline
:
Example using absolute links to the external docs - Let us
say you want to link to the java.lang
,
java.io
and other Java SE Platform packages at
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/
,
The following command generates documentation for the package
com.mypackage
with links to the Java SE Platform
packages. The generated documentation will contain links to the
Object
class, for example, in the class trees. (Other
options, such as -sourcepath
and -d
, are
not shown.)
C:> javadoc -link http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/ com.mypackageExample using relative links to the external docs - Let's say you have two packages whose docs are generated in different runs of the Javadoc tool, and those docs are separated by a relative path. In this example, the packages are
com.apipackage
, an API, and
com.spipackage
, an SPI (Service Provide Interface).
You want the documentation to reside in
docs/api/com/apipackage
and
docs/spi/com/spipackage
. Assuming the API package
documentation is already generated, and that docs
is
the current directory, you would document the SPI package with
links to the API documentation by running:
C:> javadoc -d ./spi -link ../api com.spipackage
Notice the -link
argument is relative to the
destination directory (docs/spi
).
Details - The -link
option enables you to
link to classes referenced to by your code but not
documented in the current javadoc run. For these links to go to
valid pages, you must know where those HTML pages are located, and
specify that location with extdocURL. This allows, for
instance, third party documentation to link to java.*
documentation on http://java.sun.com
.
Omit the -link
option for javadoc to create links
only to API within the documentation it is generating in the
current run. (Without the -link
option, the Javadoc
tool does not create links to documentation for external
references, because it does not know if or where that documentation
exists.)
This option can create links in several places in the generated documentation.
Another use is for cross-links between sets of packages: Execute javadoc on one set of packages, then run javadoc again on another set of packages, creating links both ways between both sets.
How a Class Must be
Referenced - For a link to an external referenced class to
actually appear (and not just its text label), the class must be
referenced in the following way. It is not sufficient for it to be
referenced in the body of a method. It must be referenced in either
an import
statement or in a declaration. Here are
examples of how the class java.io.File
can be
referenced:
import
statement: by wildcard
import, import explicitly by name, or automatically import for
java.lang.*
. For example, this would suffice:import java.io.*;
java.lang.*
.void foo(File f) {}
implements
, extends
or
throws
statement.An important corollary is that when you use the
-link
option, there may be many links that
unintentionally do not appear due to this constraint. (The text
would appear without a hypertext link.) You can detect these by the
warnings they emit. The most innocuous way to properly reference a
class and thereby add the link would be to import that class, as
shown above.
Package
List - The -link
option requires that a file named
package-list
, which is generated by the Javadoc tool,
exist at the URL you specify with -link
. The
package-list
file is a simple text file that lists the
names of packages documented at that location. In the earlier
example, the Javadoc tool looks
for a file named package-list
at the given URL, reads
in the package names and then links to those packages at that
URL.
For example, the package list for the Java SE API is located at
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/package-list
and starts as follows:
java.applet java.awt java.awt.color java.awt.datatransfer java.awt.dnd java.awt.event java.awt.font etc.
When javadoc is run without the -link
option, when
it encounters a name that belongs to an external referenced class, it
prints the name with no link. However, when the -link
option is used, the Javadoc tool searches the
package-list
file at the specified extdocURL
location for that package name. If it finds the package name, it
prefixes the name with extdocURL.
In order for there to be no broken links, all of the documentation for the external references must exist at the specified URLs. The Javadoc tool will not check that these pages exist – only that the package-list exists.
Multiple
Links - You can supply multiple -link
options to
link to any number of external generated documents. Javadoc
1.2 has a known bug which prevents you from supplying more than one
-link
command. This was fixed in 1.2.2.
Specify a different link option for each external document to link to:
C:> javadoc -link
extdocURL1 -link
extdocURL2
... -link
extdocURLn
com.mypackage
where extdocURL1, extdocURL2, ...
extdocURLn point respectively to the roots of external
documents, each of which contains a file named
package-list
.
Cross-links -
Note that "bootstrapping" may be required when cross-linking two or
more documents that have not previously been generated. In other
words, if package-list
does not exist for either
document, when you run the Javadoc tool on the first document, the
package-list
will not yet exist for the second
document. Therefore, to create the external links, you must
re-generate the first document after generating the second
document.
In this case, the purpose of first generating a document is to
create its package-list
(or you can create it by hand
it if you're certain of the package names). Then generate the
second document with its external links. The Javadoc tool prints a
warning if a needed external package-list
file does
not exist.
-link
; they both
create links to javadoc-generated documentation for external referenced classes. Use
the -linkoffline
option when linking to a document on
the web when the Javadoc tool itself is "offline" – that is,
it cannot access the document through a web connection.
More specifically, use -linkoffline
if the external
document's package-list
file is not accessible or does
not exist at the extdocURL location but does exist at a
different location, which can be specified by packageListLoc
(typically local). Thus, if extdocURL is accessible only on
the World Wide Web, -linkoffline
removes the
constraint that the Javadoc tool have a web connection when
generating the documentation.
Another use is as a "hack" to update docs: After you have run javadoc on a full set of packages, then you can run javadoc again on onlya smaller set of changed packages, so that the updated files can be inserted back into the original set. Examples are given below.
The -linkoffline
option takes two arguments –
the first for the string to be embedded in the <a
href>
links, the second telling it where to find
package-list
:
-d
) to the root of the packages being linked to. For
more details, see extdocURL in the
-link
option.package-list
file for the
external documentation. This can be a URL (http: or file:) or file
path, and can be absolute or relative. If relative, make it
relative to the current directory from where javadoc was
run. Do not include the package-list
filename.You can specify multiple
-linkoffline
options in a given javadoc run. (Prior to
1.2.2, it could be specified only once.)
Example using absolute links
to the external docs - Let us say you want to link to the
java.lang
, java.io
and other Java SE
Platform packages at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/
,
but your shell does not have web access. You could open the
package-list
file in a browser at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/package-list
,
save it to a local directory, and point to this local copy with the
second argument, packagelistLoc. In this example, the
package list file has been saved to the current directory
".
" . The following command generates documentation
for the package com.mypackage
with links to the Java
SE Platform packages. The generated documentation will contain
links to the Object
class, for example, in the class
trees. (Other necessary options, such as -sourcepath
,
are not shown.)
C:> javadoc -linkoffline http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/ . com.mypackage
Example using relative links to the external docs - It's
not very common to use -linkoffline
with relative
paths, for the simple reason that -link
usually
suffices. When using -linkoffline
, the
package-list
file is generally local, and when using
relative links, the file you are linking to is also generally
local. So it is usually unnecessary to give a different path for
the two arguments to -linkoffline
. When the two
arguments are identical, you can use -link
. See
the -link
relative
example.
Manually Creating a package-list
File - If a
package-list
file does not yet exist, but you know
what package names your document will link to, you can create your
own copy of this file by hand and specify its path with
packagelistLoc. An example would be the previous case where
the package list for com.spipackage
did not exist when
com.apipackage
was first generated. This technique is
useful when you need to generate documentation that links to new
external documentation whose package names you know, but which is
not yet published. This is also a way of creating
package-list
files for packages generated with Javadoc
1.0 or 1.1, where package-list
files were not
generated. Likewise, two companies can share their unpublished
package-list
files, enabling them to release their
cross-linked documentation simultaneously.
Linking to Multiple Documents - You can include
-linkoffline
once for each generated document you want
to refer to (each option is shown on a separate line for
clarity):
C:> javadoc -linkoffline
extdocURL1 packagelistLoc1 \
extdocURL2 packagelistLoc2
-linkoffline\
...
Updating docs - Another
use for -linkoffline
option is useful if your project
has dozens or hundreds of packages, if you have already run javadoc
on the entire tree, and now, in a separate run, you want to quickly
make some small changes and re-run javadoc on just a small portion
of the source tree. This is somewhat of a hack in that it works
properly only if your changes are only to doc comments and not to
declarations. If you were to add, remove or change any declarations
from the source code, then broken links could show up in the index,
package tree, inherited member lists, use page, and other
places.
First, you create a new destination directory (call it
update
) for this new small run. Let's say the original
destination directory was named html
. In the simplest
example, cd to the parent of html
. Set the first
argument of -linkoffline
to the current directory "."
and set the second argument to the relative path to
html
, where it can find package-list
, and
pass in only the package names of the packages you want to
update:
C:> javadoc -d update -linkoffline . html com.mypackageWhen the Javadoc tool is done, copy these generated class pages in
update\com\package
(not the overview or index), over
the original files in html\com\package
.
This option exposes all private implementation details
in the included source files, including private classes, private
fields, and the bodies of private methods, regardless of the
-public
, -package
,
-protected
and -private
options.
Unless you also use the -private
option, not all private
classes or interfaces will necessarily be accessible via links.
Each link appears on the name of the identifier in its
declaration. For example, the link to the source code of the
Button
class would be on the word "Button":
public class Button extends Component implements Accessibleand the link to the source code of the
getLabel()
method in the Button class would be on the word "getLabel":
public String getLabel()
:
packagepattern:
...-group
option. The groups appear on the page
in the order specified on the command line; packages are
alphabetized within a group. For a given -group
option, the packages matching the list of packagepattern
expressions appear in a table with the heading
groupheading.
*
). The asterisk is a wildcard meaning "match any
characters". This is the only wildcard allowed. Multiple patterns
can be included in a group by separating them with colons
(:
)."java.lang*:java.util"
If you do not supply any -group
option, all
packages are placed in one group with the heading "Packages". If
the all groups do not include all documented packages, any leftover
packages appear in a separate group with the heading "Other
Packages".
For example, the following option separates the four documented packages into core, extension and other packages. Notice the trailing "dot" does not appear in "java.lang*" – including the dot, such as "java.lang.*" would omit the java.lang package.
C:> javadoc -group "Core Packages" "java.lang*:java.util" -group "Extension Packages" "javax.*" java.lang java.lang.reflect java.util javax.servlet java.new
This results in the groupings:
java.lang
java.lang.reflect
java.util
javax.servlet
java.new
-nonavbar
option is useful when you are interested
only in the content and have no need for navigation, such as
converting the files to PostScript or PDF for print only.
help-doc.html
that
is hard-coded in the Javadoc tool. This option enables you to
override this default. The filename can be any name and is
not restricted to help-doc.html
– the Javadoc
tool will adjust the links in the navigation bar accordingly. For
example:
C:> javadoc -helpfile C:\user\myhelp.html java.awt
stylesheet.css
that is hard-coded in
the Javadoc tool. This option enables you to override this default.
The filename can be any name and is not restricted to
stylesheet.css
. For example:
C:> javadoc -stylesheetfile C:\user\mystylesheet.css com.mypackage
writeExternal
methods.
C:> javadoc -charset "iso-8859-1" mypackagewould insert the following line in the head of every generated page:
<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">This META tag is described in the HTML standard. (4197265 and 4137321)
Also see -encoding and -docencoding.
% javadoc -docencoding "ISO-8859-1" mypackageAlso see -encoding and -charset.
The meta tags include the fully qualified name of the class and the unqualified names of the fields and methods. Constructors are not included because they are identical to the class name. For example, the class String starts with these keywords:
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="java.lang.String class"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="CASE_INSENSITIVE_ORDER"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="length()"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="charAt()">
:Xaoptcmf:"
taghead"
@
tagname in doc comments. So the Javadoc tool
can "spell-check" tag names,
it is important to include a -tag
option for every
custom tag that is present in the source code, disabling (with X
) those
that are not being output in the current run.
The colon (:
) is always the separator. To
use a colon in tagname, see Use of
Colon in Tag Name.
The -tag
option outputs the tag's heading
taghead in bold, followed on the next line by the text from
its single argument, as shown in the example below. Like any block tag, this
argument's text can contain inline tags, which are also
interpreted. The output is similar to standard one-argument tags,
such as @return
and @author
. Omitting
taghead causes tagname to appear as the
heading.
Placement of tags - The Xaoptcmf
part
of the argument determines where in the source code the tag is
allowed to be placed, and whether the tag can be disabled (using
X
). You can supply either a
, to
allow the tag in all places, or any combination of the other
letters:
X
(disable tag)a
(all)o
(overview)p
(packages)t
(types, that is classes and interfaces)c
(constructors)m
(methods)f
(fields)Examples of single tags - An example of a tag option for a tag that can be used anywhere in the source code is:
-tag todo:a:"To Do:"If you wanted @todo to be used only with constructors, methods and fields, you would use:
-tag todo:cmf:"To Do:"Notice the last colon (
:
) above is not a parameter
separator, but is part of the heading text (as shown below). You
would use either tag option for source code that contains the tag
@todo
, such as:
@todo The documentation for this method needs work.This line would produce output something like:
To Do: The documentation for this method needs work.Use of Colon in Tag Name - A colon can be used in a tag name if it is escaped with a backslash. For this doc comment:
/** * @ejb:bean */use this tag option:
-tag ejb\:bean:a:"EJB Bean:"Spell-checking tag names (Disabling tags) - Some developers put custom tags in the source code that they don't always want to output. In these cases, it is important to list all tags that are present in the source code, enabling the ones you want to output and disabling the ones you don't want to output. The presence of
X
disables the tag, while its absence enables the tag.
This gives the Javadoc tool enough information to know if a tag it
encounters is unknown, probably the results of a typo or a
misspelling. It prints a warning in these cases.
You can add X
to the placement values already
present, so that when you want to enable the tag, you can simply
delete the X
. For example, if @todo is a tag that you
want to suppress on output, you would use:
-tag todo:Xcmf:"To Do:"or, if you'd rather keep it simple:
-tag todo:X
The syntax -tag todo:X
works even if
@todo
is defined by a taglet.
Order of tags - The order of the -tag
(and
-taglet
) options determine the
order the tags are output. You can mix the custom tags with the
standard tags to intersperse them. The tag options for standard
tags are placeholders only for determining the order – they
take only the standard tag's name. (Subheadings for standard tags
cannot be altered.) This is illustrated in the following
example.
If -tag
is missing, then the position of
-taglet
determines its order. If they are both
present, then whichever appears last on the command line determines
its order. (This happens because the tags and taglets are processed
in the order that they appear on the command line. For example, if
-taglet
and -tag
both have the name
"todo", the one that appears last on the command line will
determine its order.
Example of a complete set of tags - This example inserts "To Do" after "Parameters" and before "Throws" in the output. By using "X", it also specifies that @example is a tag that might be encountered in the source code that should not be output during this run. Notice that if you use @argfile, you can put the tags on separate lines in an argument file like this (no line continuation characters needed):
-tag param -tag return -tag todo:a:"To Do:" -tag throws -tag see -tag example:X
When javadoc parses the doc comments, any tag encountered that
is neither a standard tag nor passed in with -tag
or
-taglet
is considered unknown, and a warning is
thrown.
The standard tags are initially stored internally in a list in
their default order. Whenever -tag
options are used,
those tags get appended to this list – standard tags are
moved from their default position. Therefore, if a
-tag
option is omitted for a standard tag, it remains
in its default position.
Avoiding Conflicts - If you want to slice out your own
namespace, you can use a dot-separated naming convention similar to
that used for packages: com.mycompany.todo
. Sun will
continue to create standard tags whose names do not contain dots.
Any tag you create will override the behavior of a tag by the same
name defined by Sun. In other words, if you create a tag or taglet
@todo
, it will always have the same behavior you
define, even if Sun later creates a standard tag of the same
name.
Annotations vs. Javadoc Tags - In general, if the markup you want to add is intended to affect or produce documentation, it should probably be a javadoc tag; otherwise, it should be an annotation. See Comparing Annotations and Javadoc Tags
You can also create more complex block tags, or custom inline tags with the -taglet option.
Taglets are useful for block or inline tags. They can have any number of arguments and implement custom behavior, such as making text bold, formatting bullets, writing out the text to a file, or starting other processes.
Taglets can only determine where a tag should appear and in what form. All other decisions are made by the doclet. So a taglet cannot do things such as remove a class name from the list of included classes. However, it can execute side effects, such as printing the tag's text to a file or triggering another process.
Use the -tagletpath
option to specify the path to the taglet. Here is an example that
inserts the "To Do" taglet after "Parameters" and ahead of "Throws"
in the generated pages:
-taglet com.sun.tools.doclets.ToDoTaglet -tagletpath /home/taglets -tag return -tag param -tag todo -tag throws -tag see
Alternatively, you can use the -taglet
option in
place of its -tag
option, but that may be harder to
read.
:
). The Javadoc tool will search in all
subdirectories of the specified paths.
doc-files
" directories.
In other words, subdirectories and all contents are recursively
copied to the destination. For example, the directory
doc-files/example/images
and all its contents would
now be copied. There is also an option to exclude subdirectories.
doc-files
" subdirectories with the
given names. This prevents the copying of SCCS and other
source-code-control subdirectories.
all
|
packagename1:packagename2:...-noqualifier
is either
"all
" (all package qualifiers are omitted) or a
colon-separate list of packages, with wildcards, to be removed as
qualifiers. The package name is removed from places where class or interface names appear.
The following example omits all package qualifiers:
-noqualifier allThe following example omits "java.lang" and "java.io" package qualifiers:
-noqualifier java.lang:java.ioThe following example omits package qualifiers starting with "java", and "com.sun" subpackages (but not "javax"):
-noqualifier java.*:com.sun.*Where a package qualifier would appear due to the above behavior, the name can be suitably shortened – see How a name is displayed. This rule is in effect whether or not
-noqualifier
is used.
<!-- Generated by javadoc (build 1.5.0_01) on Thu Apr 02 14:04:52 IST 2009 -->
javadoc
command (except -J
options). This
enables you to create javadoc commands of any length on any
operating system.
An argument file can include javadoc options and source
filenames in any combination. The arguments within a file can be
space-separated or newline-separated. If a filename contains
embedded spaces, put the whole filename in double quotes, and
double each backslash
("My Files\\Stuff.java"
).
Filenames within an argument file are relative to the current
directory, not the location of the argument file. Wildcards (*) are
not allowed in these lists (such as for specifying
*.java
). Use of the '@' character to
recursively interpret files is not supported. The -J
options are not supported because they are passed to the launcher,
which does not support argument files.
When executing javadoc, pass in the path and name of each argument file with the '@' leading character. When javadoc encounters an argument beginning with the character `@', it expands the contents of that file into the argument list.
argfile
"
to hold all Javadoc arguments:
C:> javadoc @argfileThis argument file could contain the contents of both files shown in the next example.
Create a file named "options
" containing:
-d docs-filelist -use -splitindex -windowtitle 'Java SE 7 API Specification' -doctitle 'Java SE 7 API Specification' -header '<b>Java™ SE 7</b>' -bottom 'Copyright © 1993-2011 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.' -group "Core Packages" "java.*" -overview \java\pubs\ws\1.7.0\src\share\classes\overview-core.html -sourcepath \java\pubs\ws\1.7.0\src\share\classes
Create a file named "packages
" containing:
com.mypackage1 com.mypackage2 com.mypackage3You would then run javadoc with:
C:> javadoc @options @packages
path1
or path2
):
C:> javadoc @path1\options @path2\packages
Here's an example of saving just an argument to a javadoc option
in an argument file. We'll use the -bottom
option,
since it can have a lengthy argument. You could create a file named
"bottom
" containing its text argument:
'<font size="-1"> <a href="http://bugreport.sun.com/bugreport/">Submit a bug or feature</a><br/> Copyright © 1993, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.<br/> Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.</font>'Then run the Javadoc tool with:
C:> javadoc -bottom @bottom @packagesOr you could include the
-bottom
option at the start
of the argument file, and then just run it as:
C:> javadoc @bottom @packages
-quiet
.
Public programmatic interface - To invoke the Javadoc
tool from within programs written in the Java language. This
interface is in com.sun.tools.javadoc.Main
(and
javadoc is re-entrant). For more details, see
Standard Doclet.
Running Doclets - The instructions given below are for invoking the standard HTML doclet. To invoke a custom doclet, use the -doclet and -docletpath options. For full, working examples of running a particular doclet, see the MIF Doclet documentation.
C:\home\src\java\awt\*java
. The destination directory
is C:\home\html
.
*.java
) for
that package must be located in a directory having the same name as
the package. If a package name is made up of several identifiers
(separated by dots, such as java.awt.color
), each
subsequent identifier must correspond to a deeper subdirectory
(such as java/awt/color
). You may split the source
files for a single package among two such directory trees located
at different places, as long as -sourcepath
points to
them both – for example src1\java\awt\color
and
src2\java\awt\color
.
You can run javadoc either by changing directories (with
cd
) or by using -sourcepath
option. The
examples below illustrate both alternatives.
java
directory excluding packages rooted at java.net
and
java.lang
. Notice this excludes
java.lang.ref
, a subpackage of
java.lang
).
% javadoc -d \home\html -sourcepath \home\src -subpackages java -exclude java.net:java.lang
To also traverse down other package trees, append their names to
the -subpackages
argument, such as
java:javax:org.xml.sax
.
C:> cd C:\home\src\ C:> javadoc -d C:\home\html java.awt java.awt.event
-sourcepath
with the parent directory of the top-level
package, and supplying names of one or more packages you want to
document:
C:> javadoc -d C:\home\html -sourcepath C:\home\src java.awt java.awt.event
-sourcepath
with the path to each tree's root
(colon-separated) and supply names of one or more packages you want
to document. All source files for a given package do not need to be
located under a single root directory – they just need to be
found somewhere along the sourcepath.
C:> javadoc -d C:\home\html -sourcepath C:\home\src1;C:\home\src2 java.awt java.awt.event
java.awt
and java.awt.event
and save the
HTML files in the specified destination directory
(C:\home\html
). Because two or more packages are being
generated, the document has three HTML frames – for the list
of packages, the list of classes, and the main class pages.
.java
). You can run javadoc either of
the following two ways – by changing directories (with
cd
) or by fully-specifying the path to the
.java
files. Relative paths are relative to the
current directory. The -sourcepath
option is ignored
when passing in source files. You can use command line wildcards,
such as asterisk (*), to specify groups of classes.
.java
files. Then run
javadoc, supplying names of one or more source files you want to
document.
C:> cd C:\home\src\java\awt C:> javadoc -d C:\home\html Button.java Canvas.java Graphics*.javaThis example generates HTML-formatted documentation for the classes
Button
, Canvas
and classes beginning with
Graphics
. Because source files rather than package
names were passed in as arguments to javadoc, the document has two
frames – for the list of classes and the main page.C:> cd C:\home\src C:> javadoc -d \home\html java\awt\Button.java java\applet\Applet.javaThis example generates HTML-formatted documentation for the classes
Button
and Applet
..java
files you want to document.
C:> javadoc -d C:\home\html C:\home\src\java\awt\Button.java C:\home\src\java\awt\Graphics*.javaThis example generates HTML-formatted documentation for the class
Button
and classes beginning with
Graphics
.-sourcepath
for the path to the packages
but not for the path to the individual classes.
C:> javadoc -d C:\home\html -sourcepath C:\home\src java.awt C:\home\src\java\applet\Applet.javaThis example generates HTML-formatted documentation for the package
java.awt
and class Applet
. (The Javadoc
tool determines the package name for Applet
from the
package declaration, if any, in the Applet.java
source
file.)The same example is shown twice – first as executed on the
command line, then as executed from a makefile. It uses absolute
paths in the option arguments, which enables the same
javadoc
command to be run from any directory.
 All rights reserved.<br/> Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.</font>' -group "Core Packages" "java.*:com.sun.java.*:org.omg.*" ^ -group "Extension Packages" "javax.*" ^ -J-Xmx180m ^ @packageswhere
packages
is the name of a file containing the
packages to process, such as java.applet java.lang
.
None of the options should contain any newline characters between
the single quotes. (For example, if you copy and paste this
example, delete the newline characters from the
-bottom
option.) See the other notes listed below.
javadoc -sourcepath $(SRCDIR) ^ /* Sets path for source files */ -overview $(SRCDIR)\overview.html ^ /* Sets file for overview text */ -d \java\jdk\build\api ^ /* Sets destination directory */ -use ^ /* Adds "Use" files */ -splitIndex ^ /* Splits index A-Z */ -windowtitle $(WINDOWTITLE) ^ /* Adds a window title */ -doctitle $(DOCTITLE) ^ /* Adds a doc title */ -header $(HEADER) ^ /* Adds running header text */ -bottom $(BOTTOM) ^ /* Adds text at bottom */ -group $(GROUPCORE) ^ /* 1st subhead on overview page */ -group $(GROUPEXT) ^ /* 2nd subhead on overview page */ -J-Xmx180m ^ /* Sets memory to 180MB */ java.lang java.lang.reflect ^ /* Sets packages to document */ java.util java.io java.net ^ java.applet WINDOWTITLE = 'Java™ Platform, Standard Edition 6 API Specification' DOCTITLE = 'Java™ Platform, Standard Edition 6 API Specification' HEADER = '<b>Java™ Platform, Standard Edition 6' BOTTOM = '<font size="-1"> <a href="http://bugreport.sun.com/bugreport/">Submit a bug or feature</a><br/> Copyright © 1993, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.<br/> Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.</font>' GROUPCORE = '"Core Packages" "java.*:com.sun.java.*:org.omg.*"' GROUPEXT = '"Extension Packages" "javax.*"' SRCDIR = '/java/jdk/1.7.0/src/share/classes'
Single quotes are used to surround makefile arguments.
NOTES
-windowtitle
option, the Javadoc
tool copies the doc title to the window title. The
-windowtitle
text is basically the same as the
-doctitle
but without HTML tags, to prevent those tags
from appearing as raw text in the window title.-footer
option, as done here, the
Javadoc tool copies the header text to the footer.classpath
and -link
."error: cannot read: Class1.java"
the Javadoc tool
is trying to load the class Class1.java in the current directory.
The class name is shown with its path (absolute or relative), which
in this case is the same as ./Class1.java
.CLASSPATH
-classpath
option. Separate directories with a
semicolon, for example: