1 Writing kernel-doc comments
2 ===========================
4 The Linux kernel source files may contain structured documentation
5 comments in the kernel-doc format to describe the functions, types
6 and design of the code. It is easier to keep documentation up-to-date
7 when it is embedded in source files.
9 .. note:: The kernel-doc format is deceptively similar to javadoc,
10 gtk-doc or Doxygen, yet distinctively different, for historical
11 reasons. The kernel source contains tens of thousands of kernel-doc
12 comments. Please stick to the style described here.
14 The kernel-doc structure is extracted from the comments, and proper
15 `Sphinx C Domain`_ function and type descriptions with anchors are
16 generated from them. The descriptions are filtered for special kernel-doc
17 highlights and cross-references. See below for details.
19 .. _Sphinx C Domain: http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/domains.html
21 Every function that is exported to loadable modules using
22 ``EXPORT_SYMBOL`` or ``EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL`` should have a kernel-doc
23 comment. Functions and data structures in header files which are intended
24 to be used by modules should also have kernel-doc comments.
26 It is good practice to also provide kernel-doc formatted documentation
27 for functions externally visible to other kernel files (not marked
28 ``static``). We also recommend providing kernel-doc formatted
29 documentation for private (file ``static``) routines, for consistency of
30 kernel source code layout. This is lower priority and at the discretion
31 of the maintainer of that kernel source file.
33 How to format kernel-doc comments
34 ---------------------------------
36 The opening comment mark ``/**`` is used for kernel-doc comments. The
37 ``kernel-doc`` tool will extract comments marked this way. The rest of
38 the comment is formatted like a normal multi-line comment with a column
39 of asterisks on the left side, closing with ``*/`` on a line by itself.
41 The function and type kernel-doc comments should be placed just before
42 the function or type being described in order to maximise the chance
43 that somebody changing the code will also change the documentation. The
44 overview kernel-doc comments may be placed anywhere at the top indentation
47 Running the ``kernel-doc`` tool with increased verbosity and without actual
48 output generation may be used to verify proper formatting of the
49 documentation comments. For example::
51 scripts/kernel-doc -v -none drivers/foo/bar.c
53 The documentation format is verified by the kernel build when it is
54 requested to perform extra gcc checks::
58 Function documentation
59 ----------------------
61 The general format of a function and function-like macro kernel-doc comment is::
64 * function_name() - Brief description of function.
65 * @arg1: Describe the first argument.
66 * @arg2: Describe the second argument.
67 * One can provide multiple line descriptions
70 * A longer description, with more discussion of the function function_name()
71 * that might be useful to those using or modifying it. Begins with an
72 * empty comment line, and may include additional embedded empty
75 * The longer description may have multiple paragraphs.
77 * Context: Describes whether the function can sleep, what locks it takes,
78 * releases, or expects to be held. It can extend over multiple
80 * Return: Describe the return value of foobar.
82 * The return value description can also have multiple paragraphs, and should
83 * be placed at the end of the comment block.
86 The brief description following the function name may span multiple lines, and
87 ends with an argument description, a blank comment line, or the end of the
93 Each function argument should be described in order, immediately following
94 the short function description. Do not leave a blank line between the
95 function description and the arguments, nor between the arguments.
97 Each ``@argument:`` description may span multiple lines.
101 If the ``@argument`` description has multiple lines, the continuation
102 of the description should start at the same column as the previous line::
104 * @argument: some long description
105 * that continues on next lines
110 * some long description
111 * that continues on next lines
113 If a function has a variable number of arguments, its description should
114 be written in kernel-doc notation as::
121 The context in which a function can be called should be described in a
122 section named ``Context``. This should include whether the function
123 sleeps or can be called from interrupt context, as well as what locks
124 it takes, releases and expects to be held by its caller.
128 * Context: Any context.
129 * Context: Any context. Takes and releases the RCU lock.
130 * Context: Any context. Expects <lock> to be held by caller.
131 * Context: Process context. May sleep if @gfp flags permit.
132 * Context: Process context. Takes and releases <mutex>.
133 * Context: Softirq or process context. Takes and releases <lock>, BH-safe.
134 * Context: Interrupt context.
139 The return value, if any, should be described in a dedicated section
144 #) The multi-line descriptive text you provide does *not* recognize
145 line breaks, so if you try to format some text nicely, as in::
149 * -EINVAL - invalid argument
150 * -ENOMEM - out of memory
152 this will all run together and produce::
154 Return: 0 - OK -EINVAL - invalid argument -ENOMEM - out of memory
156 So, in order to produce the desired line breaks, you need to use a
160 * * 0 - OK to runtime suspend the device
161 * * -EBUSY - Device should not be runtime suspended
163 #) If the descriptive text you provide has lines that begin with
164 some phrase followed by a colon, each of those phrases will be taken
165 as a new section heading, which probably won't produce the desired
168 Structure, union, and enumeration documentation
169 -----------------------------------------------
171 The general format of a struct, union, and enum kernel-doc comment is::
174 * struct struct_name - Brief description.
175 * @member1: Description of member1.
176 * @member2: Description of member2.
177 * One can provide multiple line descriptions
180 * Description of the structure.
183 You can replace the ``struct`` in the above example with ``union`` or
184 ``enum`` to describe unions or enums. ``member`` is used to mean struct
185 and union member names as well as enumerations in an enum.
187 The brief description following the structure name may span multiple
188 lines, and ends with a member description, a blank comment line, or the
189 end of the comment block.
194 Members of structs, unions and enums should be documented the same way
195 as function parameters; they immediately succeed the short description
196 and may be multi-line.
198 Inside a struct or union description, you can use the ``private:`` and
199 ``public:`` comment tags. Structure fields that are inside a ``private:``
200 area are not listed in the generated output documentation.
202 The ``private:`` and ``public:`` tags must begin immediately following a
203 ``/*`` comment marker. They may optionally include comments between the
204 ``:`` and the ending ``*/`` marker.
209 * struct my_struct - short description
219 /* private: internal use only */
221 /* public: the next one is public */
225 Nested structs/unions
226 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
228 It is possible to document nested structs and unions, like::
231 * struct nested_foobar - a struct with nested unions and structs
232 * @memb1: first member of anonymous union/anonymous struct
233 * @memb2: second member of anonymous union/anonymous struct
234 * @memb3: third member of anonymous union/anonymous struct
235 * @memb4: fourth member of anonymous union/anonymous struct
236 * @bar: non-anonymous union
237 * @bar.st1: struct st1 inside @bar
238 * @bar.st2: struct st2 inside @bar
239 * @bar.st1.memb1: first member of struct st1 on union bar
240 * @bar.st1.memb2: second member of struct st1 on union bar
241 * @bar.st2.memb1: first member of struct st2 on union bar
242 * @bar.st2.memb2: second member of struct st2 on union bar
244 struct nested_foobar {
245 /* Anonymous union/struct*/
270 #) When documenting nested structs or unions, if the struct/union ``foo``
271 is named, the member ``bar`` inside it should be documented as
273 #) When the nested struct/union is anonymous, the member ``bar`` in it
274 should be documented as ``@bar:``
276 In-line member documentation comments
277 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
279 The structure members may also be documented in-line within the definition.
280 There are two styles, single-line comments where both the opening ``/**`` and
281 closing ``*/`` are on the same line, and multi-line comments where they are each
282 on a line of their own, like all other kernel-doc comments::
285 * struct foo - Brief description.
286 * @foo: The Foo member.
291 * @bar: The Bar member.
295 * @baz: The Baz member.
297 * Here, the member description may contain several paragraphs.
301 /** @foobar: Single line description. */
304 /** @bar2: Description for struct @bar2 inside @foo */
307 * @bar2.barbar: Description for @barbar inside @foo.bar2
313 Typedef documentation
314 ---------------------
316 The general format of a typedef kernel-doc comment is::
319 * typedef type_name - Brief description.
321 * Description of the type.
324 Typedefs with function prototypes can also be documented::
327 * typedef type_name - Brief description.
328 * @arg1: description of arg1
329 * @arg2: description of arg2
331 * Description of the type.
333 * Context: Locking context.
334 * Return: Meaning of the return value.
336 typedef void (*type_name)(struct v4l2_ctrl *arg1, void *arg2);
338 Highlights and cross-references
339 -------------------------------
341 The following special patterns are recognized in the kernel-doc comment
342 descriptive text and converted to proper reStructuredText markup and `Sphinx C
345 .. attention:: The below are **only** recognized within kernel-doc comments,
346 **not** within normal reStructuredText documents.
352 Name of a function parameter. (No cross-referencing, just formatting.)
355 Name of a constant. (No cross-referencing, just formatting.)
358 A literal block that should be handled as-is. The output will use a
361 Useful if you need to use special characters that would otherwise have some
362 meaning either by kernel-doc script of by reStructuredText.
364 This is particularly useful if you need to use things like ``%ph`` inside
365 a function description.
368 Name of an environment variable. (No cross-referencing, just formatting.)
379 ``&struct_name->member`` or ``&struct_name.member``
380 Structure or union member reference. The cross-reference will be to the struct
381 or union definition, not the member directly.
384 A generic type reference. Prefer using the full reference described above
385 instead. This is mostly for legacy comments.
387 Cross-referencing from reStructuredText
388 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
390 To cross-reference the functions and types defined in the kernel-doc comments
391 from reStructuredText documents, please use the `Sphinx C Domain`_
392 references. For example::
394 See function :c:func:`foo` and struct/union/enum/typedef :c:type:`bar`.
396 While the type reference works with just the type name, without the
397 struct/union/enum/typedef part in front, you may want to use::
399 See :c:type:`struct foo <foo>`.
400 See :c:type:`union bar <bar>`.
401 See :c:type:`enum baz <baz>`.
402 See :c:type:`typedef meh <meh>`.
404 This will produce prettier links, and is in line with how kernel-doc does the
407 For further details, please refer to the `Sphinx C Domain`_ documentation.
409 Overview documentation comments
410 -------------------------------
412 To facilitate having source code and comments close together, you can include
413 kernel-doc documentation blocks that are free-form comments instead of being
414 kernel-doc for functions, structures, unions, enums, or typedefs. This could be
415 used for something like a theory of operation for a driver or library code, for
418 This is done by using a ``DOC:`` section keyword with a section title.
420 The general format of an overview or high-level documentation comment is::
423 * DOC: Theory of Operation
425 * The whizbang foobar is a dilly of a gizmo. It can do whatever you
426 * want it to do, at any time. It reads your mind. Here's how it works.
430 * The only drawback to this gizmo is that is can sometimes damage
431 * hardware, software, or its subject(s).
434 The title following ``DOC:`` acts as a heading within the source file, but also
435 as an identifier for extracting the documentation comment. Thus, the title must
436 be unique within the file.
438 Including kernel-doc comments
439 =============================
441 The documentation comments may be included in any of the reStructuredText
442 documents using a dedicated kernel-doc Sphinx directive extension.
444 The kernel-doc directive is of the format::
446 .. kernel-doc:: source
449 The *source* is the path to a source file, relative to the kernel source
450 tree. The following directive options are supported:
452 export: *[source-pattern ...]*
453 Include documentation for all functions in *source* that have been exported
454 using ``EXPORT_SYMBOL`` or ``EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL`` either in *source* or in any
455 of the files specified by *source-pattern*.
457 The *source-pattern* is useful when the kernel-doc comments have been placed
458 in header files, while ``EXPORT_SYMBOL`` and ``EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL`` are next to
459 the function definitions.
463 .. kernel-doc:: lib/bitmap.c
466 .. kernel-doc:: include/net/mac80211.h
467 :export: net/mac80211/*.c
469 internal: *[source-pattern ...]*
470 Include documentation for all functions and types in *source* that have
471 **not** been exported using ``EXPORT_SYMBOL`` or ``EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL`` either
472 in *source* or in any of the files specified by *source-pattern*.
476 .. kernel-doc:: drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_audio.c
480 Include documentation for the ``DOC:`` paragraph identified by *title* in
481 *source*. Spaces are allowed in *title*; do not quote the *title*. The *title*
482 is only used as an identifier for the paragraph, and is not included in the
483 output. Please make sure to have an appropriate heading in the enclosing
484 reStructuredText document.
488 .. kernel-doc:: drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_audio.c
489 :doc: High Definition Audio over HDMI and Display Port
491 functions: *[ function ...]*
492 Include documentation for each *function* in *source*.
493 If no *function* if specified, the documentaion for all functions
494 and types in the *source* will be included.
498 .. kernel-doc:: lib/bitmap.c
499 :functions: bitmap_parselist bitmap_parselist_user
501 .. kernel-doc:: lib/idr.c
504 Without options, the kernel-doc directive includes all documentation comments
505 from the source file.
507 The kernel-doc extension is included in the kernel source tree, at
508 ``Documentation/sphinx/kerneldoc.py``. Internally, it uses the
509 ``scripts/kernel-doc`` script to extract the documentation comments from the
514 How to use kernel-doc to generate man pages
515 -------------------------------------------
517 If you just want to use kernel-doc to generate man pages you can do this
518 from the kernel git tree::
520 $ scripts/kernel-doc -man $(git grep -l '/\*\*' -- :^Documentation :^tools) | scripts/split-man.pl /tmp/man