Name
javadoc - generate HTML pages of API documentation from Java source files
Synopsis
javadoc [options] [packagenames]
[sourcefiles] [@files]
- options
-
Specifies command-line options, separated by spaces. See Standard
javadocOptions, ExtrajavadocOptions, Standard Options for the Standard Doclet, and Extra Options for the Standard Doclet. - packagenames
-
Specifies names of packages that you want to document, separated by spaces, for example
java.lang java.lang.reflect java.awt. If you want to also document the subpackages, then use the-subpackagesoption to specify the packages.By default,
javadoclooks for the specified packages in the current directory and subdirectories. Use the-sourcepathoption to specify the list of directories where to look for packages. - sourcefiles
-
Specifies names of Java source files that you want to document,
separated by spaces, for example
Class.java Object.java Button.java. By default,javadoclooks for the specified classes in the current directory. However, you can specify the full path to the class file and use wildcard characters, for example/home/src/java/awt/Graphics*.java. You can also specify the path relative to the current directory. @files-
Specifies names of files that contain a list of
javadoctool options, package names, and source file names in any order.
Description
The javadoc tool parses the declarations and
documentation comments in a set of Java source files and processes them
using a pluggable back-end called a doclet.
The standard doclet is the one that is used by default, and can produce corresponding HTML pages that describe the public and protected classes, nested and implicitly declared classes (but not anonymous inner classes), interfaces, constructors, methods, and fields. The standard doclet interprets the content of documentation comments according to the JavaDoc Documentation Comment Specification for the Standard Doclet. Custom tags in documentation comments are supported by means of taglets.
You can use the javadoc tool and the standard doclet to
generate the API documentation or the implementation documentation for a
set of source files.
You can run the javadoc tool on entire packages,
individual source files, or both. When documenting entire packages, you
can use the -subpackages option either to recursively
traverse a directory and its subdirectories, or to pass in an explicit
list of package names. When you document individual source files, pass
in a list of Java source file names.
Documentation Comments
The javadoc tool uses the documentation comment, if any,
that immediately precedes the beginning of the declaration, whether that
is an annotation, modifier, or the name being declared. If there are
multiple documentation comments before the declaration, only the last
one (closest to the declaration) will be used. If there are any
documentation comments after the beginning of the declaration, they will
be ignored. To check for any extra or misplaced documentation comments,
compile your source code with the javac option
-Xlint, or more specifically,
-Xlint:dangling-doc-comments. Within a source file, you may
suppress any warnings generated by these options by using
@SuppressWarnings("dangling-doc-comments") on a suitable
enclosing declaration.
Conformance
The standard doclet does not validate the content of documentation comments for conformance, nor does it attempt to correct any errors in documentation comments. Anyone running javadoc is advised to be aware of the problems that may arise when generating non-conformant output or output containing executable content, such as JavaScript. The standard doclet does provide the DocLint feature to help developers detect common problems in documentation comments; but it is also recommended to check the generated output with any appropriate conformance and other checking tools.
For more details on the conformance requirements for HTML5 documents, see Conformance requirements for authors in the HTML5 Specification. For more details on security issues related to web pages, see the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) page.
Options
javadoc supports command-line options for both the main
javadoc tool and the currently selected doclet. The
standard doclet is used if no other doclet is specified.
GNU-style options (that is, those beginning with --) can
use an equal sign (=) instead of whitespace characters to
separate the name of an option from its value.
Standard javadoc
Options
The following core javadoc options are equivalent to
corresponding javac options. See Standard Options
in javac for the detailed descriptions of using
these options:
--add-modules-bootclasspath--class-path,-classpath, or-cp--disable-line-doc-comments--enable-preview-encoding-extdirs--limit-modules--module--module-pathor-p--module-source-path--release--sourceor-source--source-pathor-sourcepath--system--upgrade-module-path
The following options are the core javadoc options that
are not equivalent to a corresponding javac option:
-breakiterator-
Computes the first sentence of the description in a documentation comment using an instance of
java.text.BreakIteratorto detect sentence breaks. The rules that are used depend on the current locale: for example, for English, a sentence break occurs after a period, question mark, or exclamation point followed by a space when the next word starts with a capital letter. (This is meant to handle most abbreviations, such as "The serial no. is valid", but will not handle "Mr. Smith".)The option is enabled by default if the language of the current locale is not English. If the language of the current locale is English, and the
-breakiteratoroption is not given, a simple default algorithm is used, which just looks for a period followed by a space.In a traditional
/**...*/comment, the search for the end of the first sentence is terminated by an HTML block tag, such as<p>,<pre>, or the tag for a heading.In a Markdown
///comment, the search for the end of the first sentence skips over any characters enclosed in code spans and links, and is terminated by the end of the initial block, as indicated by a blank line or the beginning of the next block, such as a list, thematic break, or an HTML block.The first sentence of the description in a documentation comment is used in summary tables, index pages, and other situations where a short summary is required. For more explicit control in any individual documentation comment, enclose the contents of the first sentence in a
{@summary ...}tag, or when applicable, in a{@return ...}tag. -docletclass-
Generates output by using an alternate doclet. Use the fully qualified
name. This doclet defines the content and formats the output. If the
-docletoption isn't used, then thejavadoctool uses the standard doclet for generating the default HTML format. This class must implement thejdk.javadoc.doclet.Docletinterface. The path to this class is defined by the-docletpathoption. -docletpathpath-
Specifies where to find doclet class files (specified with the
-docletoption) and any JAR files it depends on. If the starting class file is in a JAR file, then this option specifies the path to that JAR file. You can specify an absolute path or a path relative to the current directory. Ifpathcontains multiple paths or JAR files, then they should be separated with a colon (:) on Linux and macOS, and a semicolon (;) on Windows. This option isn't necessary when thedocletstarting class is already in the search path. -excludepkglist-
Unconditionally, excludes the specified packages and their subpackages from the list formed by
-subpackages. It excludes those packages even when they would otherwise be included by some earlier or later-subpackagesoption.The following example would include
java.io,java.util, andjava.math(among others), but would exclude packages rooted atjava.netandjava.lang. Notice that these examples excludejava.lang.ref, which is a subpackage ofjava.lang. Arguments are separated by colons on all operating systems.Linux and macOS:
javadoc -sourcepath /home/user/src -subpackages java -exclude java.net:java.langWindows:
javadoc -sourcepath \user\src -subpackages java -exclude java.net:java.lang
--expand-requires(transitive|all)-
Instructs the javadoc tool to expand the set of modules to be documented. By default, only the modules given explicitly on the command line are documented. Supports the following values:
transitive: additionally includes all the required transitive dependencies of those modules.all: includes all dependencies.
--help,-help,-h, or-?- Prints a synopsis of the standard options.
--help-extraor-X- Prints a synopsis of the set of extra options.
-Jflag-
Passes flag directly to the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) that runs the
javadoctool. For example, if you must ensure that the system sets aside 32 MB of memory in which to process the generated documentation, then you would call the-Xmxoption as follows:javadoc -J-Xmx32m -J-Xms32m com.mypackage. Be aware that-Xmsis optional because it only sets the size of initial memory, which is useful when you know the minimum amount of memory required.There is no space between the
Jand theflag.Use the
-versionoption to report the version of the JRE being used to run thejavadoctool.javadoc -J-version java version "17" 2021-09-14 LTS Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 17+35-LTS-2724) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 17+35-LTS-2724, mixed mode, sharing) -localename-
Specifies the locale that the
javadoctool uses when it generates documentation. The argument is the name of the locale, as described injava.util.Localedocumentation, such asen_US(English, United States) oren_US_WIN(Windows variant).Specifying a locale causes the
javadoctool to choose the resource files of that locale for messages such as strings in the navigation bar, headings for lists and tables, help file contents, comments in thestylesheet.cssfile, and so on. It also specifies the sorting order for lists sorted alphabetically, and the sentence separator to determine the end of the first sentence. The-localeoption doesn't determine the locale of the documentation comment text specified in the source files of the documented classes. -package- Shows only package, protected, and public classes and members.
-private- Shows all classes and members.
-protected- Shows only protected and public classes and members. This is the default.
-public- Shows only the public classes and members.
-quiet-
Shuts off messages so that only the warnings and errors appear to make
them easier to view. It also suppresses the
versionstring. --show-membersvalue-
Specifies which members (fields, methods, or constructors) are documented, where value can be any of the following:
public--- shows only public membersprotected--- shows public and protected members; this is the defaultpackage--- shows public, protected, and package membersprivate--- shows all members
--show-module-contentsvalue-
Specifies the documentation granularity of module declarations, where
value can be
apiorall. --show-packagesvalue-
Specifies which module packages are documented, where value can
be
exportedorallpackages. --show-typesvalue-
Specifies which types (classes, interfaces, etc.) are documented, where value can be any of the following:
public--- shows only public typesprotected--- shows public and protected types; this is the defaultpackage--- shows public, protected, and package typesprivate--- shows all types
-subpackagessubpkglist-
Generates documentation from source files in the specified packages and recursively in their subpackages. This option is useful when adding new subpackages to the source code because they are automatically included. Each package argument is any top-level subpackage (such as
java) or fully qualified package (such asjavax.swing) that doesn't need to contain source files. Arguments are separated by colons on all operating systems. Wild cards aren't allowed. Use-sourcepathto specify where to find the packages. This option doesn't process source files that are in the source tree but don't belong to the packages.For example, the following commands generates documentation for packages named
javaandjavax.swingand all of their subpackages.Linux and macOS:
javadoc -d docs -sourcepath /home/user/src -subpackages java:javax.swingWindows:
javadoc -d docs -sourcepath \user\src -subpackages java:javax.swing
-verbose-
Provides more detailed messages while the
javadoctool runs. Without the-verboseoption, messages appear for loading the source files, generating the documentation (one message per source file), and sorting. The-verboseoption causes the printing of additional messages that specify the number of milliseconds to parse each Java source file. --version- Prints version information.
-Werror- Reports an error if any warnings occur.
Note that if a Java source file contains an implicitly declared
class, then that class and its public, protected, and package members
will be documented regardless of the options such as
--show-types, --show-members,
-private, -protected, -package,
and -public. If --show-members is specified
with value private or if -private is used then
all private members of an implicitly declared class will be documented
too.
Extra javadoc Options
Note: The additional options for javadoc are
subject to change without notice.
The following additional javadoc options are equivalent
to corresponding javac options. See Extra Options
in javac for the detailed descriptions of using
these options:
--add-exports--add-reads--patch-module-Xmaxerrs-Xmaxwarns
Standard Options for the Standard Doclet
The following options are provided by the standard doclet.
--add-scriptfile-
Adds file as an additional JavaScript file to the generated documentation. This option can be used one or more times to specify additional script files.
Command-line example:
javadoc --add-script first_script.js --add-script second_script.js pkg_foo --add-stylesheetfile-
Adds file as an additional stylesheet file to the generated documentation. This option can be used one or more times to specify additional stylesheets included in the documentation.
Command-line example:
javadoc --add-stylesheet new_stylesheet_1.css --add-stylesheet new_stylesheet_2.css pkg_foo --allow-script-in-comments- Allow JavaScript in documentation comments, and options whose value is html-code.
-
Includes the text of any
authortags in the generated documentation. -bottomhtml-code- Specifies the text to be placed at the bottom of each generated page. The text can contain HTML tags and white space, but when it does, the text must be enclosed in quotation marks. Use escape characters for any internal quotation marks within text.
-charsetname-
Specifies the HTML character set for this document. The name should be a preferred MIME name as specified in the IANA Registry, Character Sets.
For example:
javadoc -charset "iso-8859-1" mypackageThis command inserts the following line, containing a
metaelement in the head of every generated page:<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> -ddirectory-
Specifies the destination directory where the
javadoctool saves the generated HTML files. If you omit the-doption, then the files are saved to the current directory. Thedirectoryvalue can be absolute or relative to the current working directory. The destination directory is automatically created when thejavadoctool runs.Linux and macOS: For example, the following command generates the documentation for the package
com.mypackageand saves the results in the/user/doc/directory:javadoc -d /user/doc/ com.mypackageWindows: For example, the following command generates the documentation for the package
com.mypackageand saves the results in the\user\doc\directory:javadoc -d \user\doc\ com.mypackage
-docencodingname-
Specifies the encoding of the generated HTML files. The name should be a preferred MIME name as specified in the IANA Registry, Character Sets.
Three options are available for use in a
javadocencoding command. The-encodingoption is used for encoding the files read by thejavadoctool, while the-docencodingand-charsetoptions are used for encoding the files written by the tool. Of the three available options, at most, only the input and an output encoding option are used in a single encoding command. If you specify both input and output encoding options in a command, they must be the same value. If you specify neither output option, it defaults to the input encoding.For example:
javadoc -docencoding "iso-8859-1" mypackage -docfilessubdirs-
Enables deep copying of
doc-filesdirectories. Subdirectories and all contents are recursively copied to the destination. For example, the directorydoc-files/example/imagesand all of its contents are copied. Use the-excludedocfilessubdiroption to restrict the subdirectories to be copied. -doctitlehtml-code-
Specifies the title to place near the top of the overview summary file.
The text specified in the
titletag is placed as a centered, level-one heading directly beneath the navigation bar. Thetitletag can contain HTML tags and white space, but when it does, you must enclose the title in quotation marks. Additional quotation marks within thetitletag must be escaped. For example,javadoc -doctitle "<b>My Library</b><br>v1.0" com.mypackage. -excludedocfilessubdirname1,name2...-
Excludes any subdirectories with the given names when recursively
copying
doc-filessubdirectories. See-docfilessubdirs. For historical reasons,:can be used anywhere in the argument as a separator instead of,. - This option is no longer supported and reports a warning.
-groupname p1,p2...-
Group the specified packages together in the Overview page. For
historical reasons,
:can be used as a separator anywhere in the argument instead of,. -headerhtml-code-
Specifies the header text to be placed at the top of each output file.
The header is placed to the right of the navigation bar. The
headercan contain HTML tags and white space, but when it does, theheadermust be enclosed in quotation marks. Use escape characters for internal quotation marks within a header. For example,javadoc -header "<b>My Library</b><br>v1.0" com.mypackage. -helpfilefilename-
Specifies a file containing the text that will be displayed when the
HELP link in the navigation bar is clicked. If this
option is not given, the
javadoctool creates a default page that will be used. -html5- This option is a no-op and is just retained for backwards compatibility.
--javafxor-javafx- Enables JavaFX functionality. This option is enabled by default if the JavaFX library classes are detected on the module path.
-keywords-
Adds HTML keyword
<meta>tags to the generated file for each class. These tags can help search engines that look for<meta>tags find the pages. Most search engines that search the entire Internet don't look at<meta>tags, because pages can misuse them. Search engines offered by companies that confine their searches to their own website can benefit by looking at<meta>tags. The<meta>tags include the fully qualified name of the class and the unqualified names of the fields and methods. Constructors aren't included because they are identical to the class name. For example, the page for the classStringincludes 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="isEmpty()"> -linkurl-
Creates links to existing
javadocgenerated documentation of externally referenced classes. The url argument is the absolute or relative URL of the directory that contains the externaljavadocgenerated documentation. You can specify multiple-linkoptions in a specifiedjavadoctool run to link to multiple documents.Either a
package-listor anelement-listfile must be in this url directory (otherwise, use the-linkofflineoption).Note: The
package-listandelement-listfiles are generated by thejavadoctool when generating the API documentation and should not be modified by the user.When you use the
javadoctool to document packages, it uses thepackage-listfile to determine the packages declared in an API. When you generate API documents for modules, thejavadoctool uses theelement-listfile to determine the modules and packages declared in an API.The
javadoctool reads the names from the appropriate list file and then links to the packages or modules at that URL.When the
javadoctool runs, the url value is copied into the<a href>links that are created. Therefore, url must be the URL to the directory and not to a file.You can use an absolute link for url to enable your documents to link to a document on any web site, or you can use a relative link to link only to a relative location. If you use a relative link, then the value you pass in should be the relative path from the destination directory (specified with the
-doption) to the directory containing the packages being linked to. When you specify an absolute link, you usually use an HTTP link. However, if you want to link to a file system that has no web server, then you can use a file link. Use a file link only when everyone who wants to access the generated documentation shares the same file system. In all cases, and on all operating systems, use a slash as the separator, whether the URL is absolute or relative, andhttps:,http:, orfile:as specified in the RFC 1738: Uniform Resource Locators (URL).-link https://<host>/<directory>/<directory>/.../<name> -link http://<host>/<directory>/<directory>/.../<name> -link file://<host>/<directory>/<directory>/.../<name> -link <directory>/<directory>/.../<name> --link-modularity-mismatch(warn|info)-
Specifies whether external documentation with wrong modularity (e.g.
non-modular documentation for a modular library, or the reverse case)
should be reported as a warning (
warn) or just a message (info). The default behavior is to report a warning. -linkofflineurl1 url2-
This option is a variation of the
-linkoption. They both create links tojavadocgenerated documentation for externally referenced classes. You can specify multiple-linkofflineoptions in a specifiedjavadoctool run.Use the
-linkofflineoption when:Linking to a document on the web that the
javadoctool can't access through a web connectionThe
package-listorelement-listfile of the external document either isn't accessible or doesn't exist at the URL location, but does exist at a different location and can be specified by either thepackage-listorelement-listfile (typically local).
Note: The
package-listandelement-listfiles are generated by thejavadoctool when generating the API documentation and should not be modified by the user.If url1 is accessible only on the World Wide Web, then the
-linkofflineoption removes the constraint that thejavadoctool must have a web connection to generate documentation.Another use of the
-linkofflineoption is as a work-around to update documents. After you have run thejavadoctool on a full set of packages or modules, you can run thejavadoctool again on a smaller set of changed packages or modules, so that the updated files can be inserted back into the original set.For example, the
-linkofflineoption takes two arguments. The first is for the string to be embedded in the<a href>links, and the second tells thejavadoctool where to find either thepackage-listorelement-listfile.The url1 or url2 value is the absolute or relative URL of the directory that contains the external
javadocgenerated documentation that you want to link to. When relative, the value should be the relative path from the destination directory (specified with the-doption) to the root of the packages being linked to. See url in the-linkoption. --link-platform-propertiesurl-
Specifies a properties file used to configure links to platform documentation.
The url argument is expected to point to a properties file containing one or more entries with the following format, where
<version>is the platform version as passed to the--releaseor--sourceoption and<url>is the base URL of the corresponding platform API documentation:doclet.platform.docs.<version>=<url>For instance, a properties file containing URLs for releases 15 to 17 might contain the following lines:
doclet.platform.docs.15=https://example.com/api/15/ doclet.platform.docs.16=https://example.com/api/16/ doclet.platform.docs.17=https://example.com/api/17/If the properties file does not contain an entry for a particular release no platform links are generated.
-linksource-
Creates an HTML version of each source file (with line numbers) and adds links to them from the standard HTML documentation. Links are created for classes, interfaces, constructors, methods, and fields whose declarations are in a source file. Otherwise, links aren't created, such as for default constructors and generated classes.
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-privateoptions. Unless you also use the-privateoption, not all private classes or interfaces are accessible through links.Each link appears on the name of the identifier in its declaration. For example, the link to the source code of the
Buttonclass would be on the wordButton:public class Button extends Component implements AccessibleThe link to the source code of the
getLabelmethod in theButtonclass is on the wordgetLabel:public String getLabel() --main-stylesheetfile or-stylesheetfilefile-
Specifies the path of an alternate stylesheet file that contains the definitions for the CSS styles used in the generated documentation. This option lets you override the default. If you do not specify the option, the
javadoctool will create and use a default stylesheet. The file name can be any name and isn't restricted tostylesheet.css. The--main-stylesheetoption is the preferred form.Command-line example:
javadoc --main-stylesheet main_stylesheet.css pkg_foo -nocomment- Suppresses the entire comment body, including the main description and all tags, and generate only declarations. This option lets you reuse source files that were originally intended for a different purpose so that you can produce skeleton HTML documentation during the early stages of a new project.
-nodeprecated-
Prevents the generation of any deprecated API in the documentation. This
does what the
-nodeprecatedlistoption does, and it doesn't generate any deprecated API throughout the rest of the documentation. This is useful when writing code when you don't want to be distracted by the deprecated code. -nodeprecatedlist-
Prevents the generation of the file that contains the list of deprecated
APIs (
deprecated-list.html) and the link in the navigation bar to that page. Thejavadoctool continues to generate the deprecated API throughout the rest of the document. This is useful when your source code contains no deprecated APIs, and you want to make the navigation bar cleaner. --no-fonts- Prevents inclusion of font files in the generated documentation. This can be useful if the documentation uses a custom stylesheet which does not use the default fonts.
-nohelp- Omits the HELP link in the navigation bar at the top of each generated page.
-noindex- Omits the index from the generated documents. The index is produced by default.
-
Prevents the generation of the navigation bar and header. The
-nonavbaroption has no effect on the-bottomoption. The-nonavbaroption is useful when you are interested only in the content and have no need for navigation, such as when you are converting the files to PostScript or PDF for printing only. --no-platform-links- Prevents the generation of links to platform documentation. These links are generated by default.
-noqualifiername1,name2...-
Excludes the list of qualifiers from the output. The package name is removed from places where class or interface names appear. For historical reasons,
:can be used anywhere in the argument as a separator instead of,.The following example omits all package qualifiers:
-noqualifier all.The following example omits
java.langandjava.iopackage qualifiers:-noqualifier java.lang:java.io.The following example omits package qualifiers starting with
javaandcom.sunsubpackages, but notjavax: -noqualifier java.*:com.sun.*.Where a package qualifier would appear due to the previous behavior, the name can be suitably shortened. This rule is in effect whether or not the
-noqualifieroption is used. -nosince-
Omits from the generated documentation the
Sincesections derived from anysincetags. -notimestamp-
Suppresses the time stamp, which is hidden in an HTML comment in the
generated HTML near the top of each page. The
-notimestampoption is useful when you want to run thejavadoctool on two source bases and compare them, because it prevents time stamps from causing a difference (which would otherwise be a difference on every page). The time stamp includes thejavadoctool release number. -notree- Omits the class and interface hierarchy pages from the generated documents. These are the pages you reach using the TREE link in the navigation bar. The hierarchy is produced by default.
--override-methods(detail|summary)-
Documents overridden methods in the detail or summary sections. The
default is
detail. -overviewfilename-
Specifies that the
javadoctool should retrieve the content for the overview documentation from the file specified by filename and place it on the Overview page (overview-summary.html). If the filename is a relative path, it is evaluated relative to the current working directory.The file may be an HTML file, with a filename ending in
.html, or a Markdown file, with a filename ending in.md. If the file is an HTML file, the content for the overview documentation is taken from the<main>element in the file, if one is present, or from the<body>element is there is no<main>element. If the file is a Markdown file, the entire content of the file is used.The title on the overview page is set by
-doctitle.Note: older versions of the
javadoctool assumed that any use of this option was for an HTML file, and allowed any extension for the filename. -serialwarn-
Reports compile-time warnings for missing
@serialtags. By default, Javadoc reports no serial warnings. Use this option to display the serial warnings, which helps to properly document default serializable fields andwriteExternalmethods. --sincerelease(,release)*-
Generates documentation for APIs that were added or newly deprecated in the specified releases.
If the
@sincetag in thejavadoccomment of an element in the documented source code matches a release passed as the option argument, information about the element and the release it was added in is included in a "New API" page.If the "Deprecated API" page is generated and the
sinceelement of thejava.lang.Deprecatedannotation of a documented element matches a release in the option arguments, information about the release the element was deprecated in is added to the "Deprecated API" page.Releases are compared using case-sensitive string comparison.
--since-labeltext- Specifies the text to use in the heading of the "New API" page. This may contain information about the releases covered in the page, e.g. "New API in release 2.0", or "New API since release 1".
--snippet-pathsnippetpathlist-
Specifies the search paths for finding files for external snippets. The
snippetpathlist can contain multiple paths by separating them
with the platform path separator (
;on Windows;:on other platforms.) The standard doclet first searches thesnippet-filessubdirectory in the package containing the snippet, and then searches all the directories in the given list. -sourcetabtab-length- Specifies the number of spaces each tab uses in the source.
--spec-base-urlurl-
Specifies the base URL for relative URLs in
@spectags, to be used when generating links to any external specifications. It can either be an absolute URL, or a relative URL, in which case it is evaluated relative to the base directory of the generated output files. The default value is equivalent to{@docRoot}/../specs. -splitindex- Splits the index file into multiple files, alphabetically, one file per letter, plus a file for any index entries that start with non-alphabetical symbols.
-tagname:locations:header-
Specifies a custom tag with a single argument. For the
javadoctool to spell-check tag names, it is important to include a-tagoption for every custom tag that is present in the source code, disabling (withX) those that aren't being output in the current run. The colon (:) is always the separator. To include a colon in the tag name, escape it with a backward slash (\). The-tagoption outputs the tag heading, header, in bold, followed on the next line by the text from its single argument. Similar to any block tag, the argument text can contain inline tags, which are also interpreted. The output is similar to standard one-argument tags, such as the@returnand@authortags. Omitting a header value causes the name to be the heading. locations is a list of characters specifying the kinds of declarations in which the tag may be used. The following characters may be used, in either uppercase or lowercase:A: all declarationsC: constructorsF: fieldsM: methodsO: the overview page and other documentation files indoc-filessubdirectoriesP: packagesS: modulesT: types (classes and interfaces)X: nowhere: the tag is disabled, and will be ignored
The order in which tags are given on the command line will be used as the order in which the tags appear in the generated output. You can include standard tags in the order given on the command line by using the
-tagoption with no locations or header. -tagletclass-
Specifies the fully qualified name of the taglet used in generating the documentation for that tag. Use the fully qualified name for the class value. This taglet also defines the number of text arguments that the custom tag has. The taglet accepts those arguments, processes them, and generates the output.
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. A taglet can't 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
-tagletpathoption to specify the path to the taglet. The following example 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 seeAlternately, you can use the
-tagletoption in place of its-tagoption, but that might be difficult to read. -tagletpathtagletpathlist-
Specifies the search paths for finding taglet class files. The
tagletpathlist can contain multiple paths by separating them
with the platform path separator (
;on Windows;:on other platforms.) Thejavadoctool searches all subdirectories of the specified paths. -tophtml-code- Specifies the text to be placed at the top of each output file.
-use-
Creates class and package usage pages. Includes one Use page for each
documented class and package. The page describes what packages, classes,
methods, constructors, and fields use any API of the specified class or
package. Given class C, things that use class C would include subclasses
of C, fields declared as C, methods that return C, and methods and
constructors with parameters of type C. For example, you can look at the
Use page for the
Stringtype. Because thegetNamemethod in thejava.awt.Fontclass returns typeString, thegetNamemethod usesStringand so thegetNamemethod appears on the Use page forString. This documents only uses of the API, not the implementation. When a method usesStringin its implementation, but doesn't take a string as an argument or return a string, that isn't considered a use ofString. To access the generated Use page, go to the class or package and click the USE link in the navigation bar. -version-
Includes the text of any
versiontags in the generated documentation. This text is omitted by default. Note: To find out what version of thejavadoctool you are using, use the--versionoption (with two hyphens). -windowtitletitle-
Specifies the title to be placed in the HTML
<title>tag. The text specified in thetitletag appears in the window title and in any browser bookmarks (favorite places) that someone creates for this page. This title should not contain any HTML tags because a browser will not interpret them correctly. Use escape characters on any internal quotation marks within thetitletag. If the-windowtitleoption is omitted, then thejavadoctool uses the value of the-doctitleoption for the-windowtitleoption. For example,javadoc -windowtitle "My Library" com.mypackage.
Extra Options for the Standard Doclet
The following are additional options provided by the standard doclet and are subject to change without notice. Additional options are less commonly used or are otherwise regarded as advanced.
--datedate-and-time-
Specifies the value to be used to timestamp the generated pages, in ISO 8601 format. The specified value must be within 10 years of the current date and time. It is an error to specify both
-notimestampand--date. Using a specific value means the generated documentation can be part of a reproducible build. If the option is not given, the default value is the current date and time. For example:javadoc --date 2022-02-01T17:41:59-08:00 mypackage --legal-notices(default|none|directory)-
Specifies the location from which to copy legal files to the generated
documentation. If the option is not specified or is used with the value
default, the files are copied from the default location. If the argument is used with valuenone, no files are copied. Every other argument is interpreted as directory from which to copy the legal files. --no-frames- This option is no longer supported and reports a warning.
-Xdoclint-
Enables recommended checks for problems in documentation comments.
By default, the
-Xdoclintoption is enabled. Disable it with the option-Xdoclint:none.For more details, see DocLint.
-Xdoclint:flag,flag,...-
Enables or disables specific checks for different kinds of issues in documentation comments.
Each flag can be one of
all,none, or[-]group where group has one of the following values:accessibility,html,missing,reference,syntax. For more details on these values, see DocLint Groups.When specifying two or more flags, you can either use a single
-Xdoclint:...option, listing all the desired flags, or you can use multiple options giving one or more flag in each option. For example, use either of the following commands to check for the HTML, syntax, and accessibility issues in the fileMyFile.java.javadoc -Xdoclint:html -Xdoclint:syntax -Xdoclint:accessibility MyFile.java javadoc -Xdoclint:html,syntax,accessibility MyFile.javaThe following examples illustrate how to change what DocLint reports:
-Xdoclint:none--- disables all checks-Xdoclint:group --- enables group checks-Xdoclint:all--- enables all groups of checks-Xdoclint:all,-group --- enables all checks except group checks
For more details, see DocLint.
-Xdoclint/package:[-]packages-
Enables or disables checks in specific packages. packages is a comma separated list of package specifiers. A package specifier is either a qualified name of a package or a package name prefix followed by
*, which expands to all subpackages of the given package. Prefix the package specifier with-to disable checks for the specified packages.For more details, see DocLint.
-Xdocrootparenturl-
Replaces all
@docRootitems followed by/..in documentation comments with url.
DocLint
DocLint provides the ability to check for possible problems in
documentation comments. Problems may be reported as warnings or errors,
depending on their severity. For example, a missing comment may be bad
style that deserves a warning, but a link to an unknown Java declaration
is more serious and deserves an error. Problems are organized into groups, and options can be used to enable or disable
messages in one or more groups. Within the source code, messages in one
or more groups can be suppressed by
using @SuppressWarnings annotations.
When invoked from javadoc, by default DocLint checks all
comments that are used in the generated documentation. It thus relies on
other command-line options to determine which declarations, and which
corresponding documentation comments will be included. Note:
this may mean that even comments on some private members of serializable
classes will also be checked, if the members need to be documented in
the generated Serialized Forms page.
In contrast, when DocLint is invoked from javac, DocLint
solely relies on the various -Xdoclint... options to
determine which documentation comments to check.
DocLint doesn't attempt to fix invalid input, it just reports it.
Note: DocLint doesn't guarantee the completeness of these checks. In particular, it isn't a full HTML compliance checker. The goal is to just report common errors in a convenient manner.
Groups
The checks performed by DocLint are organized into groups. The
warnings and errors in each group can be enabled or disabled with
command-line options, or suppressed with @SuppressWarnings
annotations.
The groups are as follows:
accessibility--- Checks for issues related to accessibility.
For example, noaltattribute specified in an<img>element, or no caption or summary attributes specified in a<table>element.Issues are reported as errors if a downstream validation tool might be expected to report an error in the files generated by
javadoc.For reference, see the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
html--- Detects common high-level HTML issues.
For example, putting block elements inside inline elements, or not closing elements that require an end tag.Issues are reported as errors if a downstream validation tool might be expected to report an error in the files generated by
javadoc.For reference, see the HTML Living Standard.
missing--- Checks for missing documentation comments or tags.
For example, a missing comment on a class declaration, or a missing@paramor@returntag in the comment for a method declaration.Issues related to missing items are typically reported as warnings because they are unlikely to be reported as errors by downstream validation tools that may be used to check the output generated by
javadoc.reference--- Checks for issues relating to the references to Java API elements from documentation comment tags.
For example, the reference in@seeor{@link ...}cannot be found, or a bad name is given for@paramor@throws.Issues are typically reported as errors because while the issue may not cause problems in the generated files, the author has likely made a mistake that will lead to incorrect or unexpected documentation.
syntax--- Checks for low-level syntactic issues in documentation comments.
For example, unescaped angle brackets (<and>) and ampersands (&) and invalid documentation comment tags.Issues are typically reported as errors because the issues may lead to incorrect or unexpected documentation.
Suppressing Messages
DocLint checks for and recognizes two strings that may be present in
the arguments for an @SuppressWarnings annotation.
doclintdoclint:LIST
where LIST is a comma-separated list of one or more of
accessibility, html, missing,
reference, syntax.
The names in LIST are the same group
names supported by the command-line -Xdoclint option for
javac and javadoc. (This is the same
convention honored by the javac -Xlint option
and the corresponding names supported by
@SuppressWarnings.)
The names in LIST can equivalently be specified in separate arguments of the annotation. For example, the following are equivalent:
@SuppressWarnings("doclint:accessibility,missing")@SuppressWarnings("doclint:accessibility", "doclint:missing")
When DocLint detects an issue in a documentation comment, it checks
for the presence of @SuppressWarnings on the associated
declaration and on all lexically enclosing declarations. The issue will
be ignored if any such annotation is found containing the simple string
doclint or the longer form doclint:LIST where
LIST contains the name of the group for the issue.
Note: as with other uses of @SuppressWarnings,
using the annotation on a module or package declaration only affects
that declaration; it does not affect the contents of the module or
package in other source files.
All messages related to an issue are suppressed by the presence of an
appropriate @SuppressWarnings annotation: this includes
errors as well as warnings.
Note: It is only possible to suppress messages. If
an annotation of @SuppressWarnings("doclint") is given on a
top-level declaration, all DocLint messages for that declaration and any
enclosed declarations will be suppressed; it is not possible to
selectively re-enable messages for issues in enclosed declarations.
Comparison with downstream validation tools
DocLint is a utility built into javac and
javadoc that checks the content of documentation comments,
as found in source files. In contrast, downstream validation tools can
be used to validate the output generated from those documentation
comments by javadoc and the standard doclet.
Although there is some overlap in functionality, the two mechanisms are different and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Downstream validation tools can check the end result of any generated documentation, as it will be seen by the end user. This includes content from all sources, including documentation comments, the standard doclet itself, user-provided taglets, and content supplied via command-line options. Because such tools are analyzing complete HTML pages, they can do more complete checks than can DocLint. However, when a problem is found in the generated pages, it can be harder to track down exactly where in the build pipeline the problem needs to be fixed.
DocLint checks the content of documentation comments, in source files. This makes it very easy to identify the exact position of any issues that may be found. DocLint can also detect some semantic errors in documentation comments that downstream tools cannot detect, such as missing comments, using an
@returntag in a method returningvoid, or an@paramtag describing a non-existent parameter. But by its nature, DocLint cannot report on problems such as missing links, or errors in user-provided custom taglets, or problems in the standard doclet itself. It also cannot reliably detect errors in documentation comments at the boundaries between content in a documentation comment and content generated by a custom taglet.