CLI
If for some reason you cannot use Gradle or Maven build tools, Dokka has a command line (CLI) runner for generating documentation.
In comparison, it has the same, if not more, capabilities as the Gradle plugin for Dokka. Although it is considerably more difficult to set up as there is no autoconfiguration, especially in multiplatform and multi-module environments.
Get started
The CLI runner is published to Maven Central as a separate runnable artifact.
You can find it on Maven Central or download it directly.
With the dokka-cli-1.9.20.jar
file saved on your computer, run it with the -help
option to see all available configuration options and their description:
It also works for some nested options, such as -sourceSet
:
Generate documentation
Prerequisites
Since there is no build tool to manage dependencies, you have to provide dependency .jar
files yourself.
Listed below are the dependencies that you need for any output format:
Group | Artifact | Version | Link |
---|---|---|---|
|
| 1.9.20 | |
|
| 1.9.20 |
Below are the additional dependencies that you need for HTML output format:
Run with command line options
You can pass command line options to configure the CLI runner.
At the very least you need to provide the following options:
-pluginsClasspath
- a list of absolute/relative paths to downloaded dependencies, separated by semi-colons;
-sourceSet
- an absolute path to code sources to generate documentation for-outputDir
- an absolute/relative path of the documentation output directory
Executing the given example generates documentation in HTML output format.
See Command line options for more configuration details.
Run with JSON configuration
It's possible to configure the CLI runner with JSON. In this case, you need to provide an absolute/relative path to the JSON configuration file as the first and only argument. All other configuration options are parsed from it.
At the very least, you need the following JSON configuration file:
See JSON configuration options for more details.
Other output formats
By default, the dokka-base
artifact contains the HTML output format only.
All other output formats are implemented as Dokka plugins. In order to use them, you have to put them on the plugins classpath.
For example, if you want to generate documentation in the experimental GFM output format, you need to download and pass gfm-plugin's JAR (download) into the pluginsClasspath
configuration option.
Via command line options:
Via JSON configuration:
With the GFM plugin passed to pluginsClasspath
, the CLI runner generates documentation in the GFM output format.
Command line options
To see the list of all possible command line options and their detailed description, run:
Short summary:
Option | Description |
---|---|
| Name of the project/module. |
| Documented version. |
| Output directory path, |
| Configuration for a Dokka source set. Contains nested configuration options. |
| Configuration for Dokka plugins. |
| List of jars with Dokka plugins and their dependencies. Accepts multiple paths separated by semicolons. |
| Whether to resolve remote files/links over network. |
| Whether to fail documentation generation if Dokka has emitted a warning or an error. |
| Whether to delay substitution of some elements. Used in incremental builds of multi-module projects. |
| Whether to suppress obvious functions such as those inherited from |
| Markdown files that contain module and package documentation. Accepts multiple values separated by semicolons. |
| Whether to suppress inherited members that aren't explicitly overridden in a given class. |
| Global list of package configuration options in format |
| Global external documentation links in format |
| Global mapping between a source directory and a Web service for browsing the code. Accepts multiple paths separated by semicolons. |
| Prints help for the nested |
| Logging level, possible values: |
| Usage info. |
Source set options
To see the list of command line options for the nested -sourceSet
configuration, run:
Short summary:
Option | Description |
---|---|
| Name of the source set. |
| Display name of the source set, used both internally and externally. |
| Classpath for analysis and interactive samples. Accepts multiple paths separated by semicolons. |
| Source code roots to be analyzed and documented. Accepts multiple paths separated by semicolons. |
| Names of the dependent source sets in format |
| List of directories or files that contain sample functions. Accepts multiple paths separated by semicolons. |
| Markdown files that contain module and package documentation. Accepts multiple paths separated by semicolons. |
| Visibilities to be documented. Accepts multiple values separated by semicolons. Possible values: |
| Whether to report undocumented declarations. |
| Whether to create pages for empty packages. |
| Whether to skip deprecated declarations. |
| Version of JDK to use for linking to JDK Javadocs. |
| Language version used for setting up analysis and samples. |
| Kotlin API version used for setting up analysis and samples. |
| Whether to generate links to the Kotlin standard library. |
| Whether to generate links to JDK Javadocs. |
| Paths to files to be suppressed. Accepts multiple paths separated by semicolons. |
| Platform used for setting up analysis. |
| List of package source set configurations in format |
| External documentation links in format |
| Mapping between a source directory and a Web service for browsing the code. Accepts multiple paths separated by semicolons. |
JSON configuration
Below are some examples and detailed descriptions for each configuration section. You can also find an example with all configuration options applied at the bottom of the page.
General configuration
- moduleName
The display name used to refer to the module. It is used for the table of contents, navigation, logging, etc.
Default:
root
- moduleVersion
The module version.
Default: empty
- outputDirectory
The directory to where documentation is generated, regardless of output format.
Default:
./dokka
- failOnWarning
Whether to fail documentation generation if Dokka has emitted a warning or an error. The process waits until all errors and warnings have been emitted first.
This setting works well with
reportUndocumented
Default:
false
- suppressObviousFunctions
Whether to suppress obvious functions.
A function is considered to be obvious if it is:
Inherited from
kotlin.Any
,Kotlin.Enum
,java.lang.Object
orjava.lang.Enum
, such asequals
,hashCode
,toString
.Synthetic (generated by the compiler) and does not have any documentation, such as
dataClass.componentN
ordataClass.copy
.
Default:
true
- suppressInheritedMembers
Whether to suppress inherited members that aren't explicitly overridden in a given class.
Note: This can suppress functions such as
equals
/hashCode
/toString
, but cannot suppress synthetic functions such asdataClass.componentN
anddataClass.copy
. UsesuppressObviousFunctions
for that.Default:
false
- offlineMode
Whether to resolve remote files/links over your network.
This includes package-lists used for generating external documentation links. For example, to make classes from the standard library clickable.
Setting this to
true
can significantly speed up build times in certain cases, but can also worsen documentation quality and user experience. For example, by not resolving class/member links from your dependencies, including the standard library.Note: You can cache fetched files locally and provide them to Dokka as local paths. See
externalDocumentationLinks
section.Default:
false
- includes
A list of Markdown files that contain module and package documentation.
The contents of specified files are parsed and embedded into documentation as module and package descriptions.
This can be configured on per-package basis.
- sourceSets
Individual and additional configuration of Kotlin source sets.
For a list of possible options, see source set configuration.
- sourceLinks
The global configuration of source links that is applied for all source sets.
For a list of possible options, see source link configuration.
- perPackageOptions
The global configuration of matched packages, regardless of the source set they are in.
For a list of possible options, see per-package configuration.
- externalDocumentationLinks
The global configuration of external documentation links, regardless of the source set they are used in.
For a list of possible options, see external documentation links configuration.
- pluginsClasspath
A list of JAR files with Dokka plugins and their dependencies.
Source set configuration
How to configure Kotlin source sets:
- displayName
The display name used to refer to this source set.
The name is used both externally (for example, the source set name is visible to documentation readers) and internally (for example, for logging messages of
reportUndocumented
).The platform name can be used if you don't have a better alternative.
- sourceSetID
The technical ID of the source set
- documentedVisibilities
The set of visibility modifiers that should be documented.
This can be used if you want to document
protected
/internal
/private
declarations, as well as if you want to excludepublic
declarations and only document internal API.This can be configured on per-package basis.
Possible values:
PUBLIC
PRIVATE
PROTECTED
INTERNAL
PACKAGE
Default:
PUBLIC
- reportUndocumented
Whether to emit warnings about visible undocumented declarations, that is declarations without KDocs after they have been filtered by
documentedVisibilities
and other filters.This setting works well with
failOnWarning
.This can be configured on per-package basis.
Default:
false
- skipEmptyPackages
Whether to skip packages that contain no visible declarations after various filters have been applied.
For example, if
skipDeprecated
is set totrue
and your package contains only deprecated declarations, it is considered to be empty.Default for CLI runner is
false
.- skipDeprecated
Whether to document declarations annotated with
@Deprecated
.This can be configured on per-package basis.
Default:
false
- jdkVersion
The JDK version to use when generating external documentation links for Java types.
For example, if you use
java.util.UUID
in some public declaration signature, and this option is set to8
, Dokka generates an external documentation link to JDK 8 Javadocs for it.- languageVersion
The Kotlin language version used for setting up analysis and @sample environment.
- apiVersion
The Kotlin API version used for setting up analysis and @sample environment.
- noStdlibLink
Whether to generate external documentation links that lead to the API reference documentation of Kotlin's standard library.
Note: Links are generated when
noStdLibLink
is set tofalse
.Default:
false
- noJdkLink
Whether to generate external documentation links to JDK's Javadocs.
The version of JDK Javadocs is determined by the
jdkVersion
option.Note: Links are generated when
noJdkLink
is set tofalse
.Default:
false
- includes
A list of Markdown files that contain module and package documentation.
The contents of the specified files are parsed and embedded into documentation as module and package descriptions.
- analysisPlatform
Platform to be used for setting up code analysis and @sample environment.
Possible values:
jvm
common
js
native
- sourceRoots
The source code roots to be analyzed and documented. Acceptable inputs are directories and individual
.kt
/.java
files.- classpath
The classpath for analysis and interactive samples.
This is useful if some types that come from dependencies are not resolved/picked up automatically.
This option accepts both
.jar
and.klib
files.- samples
A list of directories or files that contain sample functions which are referenced via the @sample KDoc tag.
- suppressedFiles
The files to be suppressed when generating documentation.
- sourceLinks
A set of parameters for source links that is applied only for this source set.
For a list of possible options, see source link configuration.
- perPackageOptions
A set of parameters specific to matched packages within this source set.
For a list of possible options, see per-package configuration.
- externalDocumentationLinks
A set of parameters for external documentation links that is applied only for this source set.
For a list of possible options, see external documentation links configuration.
Source link configuration
The sourceLinks
configuration block allows you to add a source
link to each signature that leads to the remoteUrl
with a specific line number. (The line number is configurable by setting remoteLineSuffix
).
This helps readers to find the source code for each declaration.
For an example, see the documentation for the count()
function in kotlinx.coroutines
.
You can configure source links for all source sets together at the same time, or individually:
- localDirectory
The path to the local source directory.
- remoteUrl
The URL of the source code hosting service that can be accessed by documentation readers, like GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, etc. This URL is used to generate source code links of declarations.
- remoteLineSuffix
The suffix used to append the source code line number to the URL. This helps readers navigate not only to the file, but to the specific line number of the declaration.
The number itself is appended to the specified suffix. For example, if this option is set to
#L
and the line number is 10, the resulting URL suffix is#L10
.Suffixes used by popular services:
GitHub:
#L
GitLab:
#L
Bitbucket:
#lines-
Default: empty (no suffix)
Per-package configuration
The perPackageOptions
configuration block allows setting some options for specific packages matched by matchingRegex
.
You can add package configurations for all source sets together at the same time, or individually:
- matchingRegex
The regular expression that is used to match the package.
- suppress
Whether this package should be skipped when generating documentation.
Default:
false
- skipDeprecated
Whether to document declarations annotated with
@Deprecated
.This can be set on project/module level.
Default:
false
- reportUndocumented
Whether to emit warnings about visible undocumented declarations, that is declarations without KDocs after they have been filtered by
documentedVisibilities
and other filters.This setting works well with
failOnWarning
.This can be configured on source set level.
Default:
false
- documentedVisibilities
The set of visibility modifiers that should be documented.
This can be used if you want to document
protected
/internal
/private
declarations within this package, as well as if you want to excludepublic
declarations and only document internal API.Can be configured on source set level.
Default:
PUBLIC
External documentation links configuration
The externalDocumentationLinks
block allows the creation of links that lead to the externally hosted documentation of your dependencies.
For example, if you are using types from kotlinx.serialization
, by default they are unclickable in your documentation, as if they are unresolved. However, since the API reference documentation for kotlinx.serialization
is built by Dokka and is published on kotlinlang.org, you can configure external documentation links for it. Thus allowing Dokka to generate links for types from the library, making them resolve successfully and clickable.
You can configure external documentation links for all source sets together at the same time, or individually:
- url
The root URL of documentation to link to. It must contain a trailing slash.
Dokka does its best to automatically find
package-list
for the given URL, and link declarations together.If automatic resolution fails or if you want to use locally cached files instead, consider setting the
packageListUrl
option.- packageListUrl
The exact location of a
package-list
. This is an alternative to relying on Dokka automatically resolving it.Package lists contain information about the documentation and the project itself, such as module and package names.
This can also be a locally cached file to avoid network calls.
Complete configuration
Below you can see all possible configuration options applied at the same time.