module RDoc

RDoc produces documentation for Ruby source files by parsing the source and extracting the definition for classes, modules, methods, includes and requires. It associates these with optional documentation contained in an immediately preceding comment block then renders the result using an output formatter.

For a simple introduction to writing or generating documentation using RDoc see the README.

Roadmap¶ ↑

If you think you found a bug in RDoc see Bugs at CONTRIBUTING

If you want to use RDoc to create documentation for your Ruby source files, see RDoc::Markup and refer to rdoc --help for command line usage.

If you want to set the default markup format see Markup Formats at RDoc::Markup

If you want to store rdoc configuration in your gem (such as the default markup format) see Saved Options at RDoc::Options

If you want to write documentation for Ruby files see RDoc::Parser::Ruby

If you want to write documentation for extensions written in C see RDoc::Parser::C

If you want to generate documentation using rake see RDoc::Task.

If you want to drive RDoc programmatically, see RDoc::RDoc.

If you want to use the library to format text blocks into HTML or other formats, look at RDoc::Markup.

If you want to make an RDoc plugin such as a generator or directive handler see RDoc::RDoc.

If you want to write your own output generator see RDoc::Generator.

If you want an overview of how RDoc works see Bugs at CONTRIBUTING

Credits¶ ↑

RDoc is currently being maintained by Eric Hodel <drbrain@segment7.net>.

Dave Thomas <dave@pragmaticprogrammer.com> is the original author of RDoc.

The Ruby parser in rdoc/parse.rb is based heavily on the outstanding work of Keiju ISHITSUKA of Nippon Rational Inc, who produced the Ruby parser for irb and the rtags package.

RBS type signature support. Loads type information from .rbs files, validates inline annotations, and converts type signatures to HTML with linked type names.

Constants

ATTR_MODIFIERS: RDoc modifiers for attributes
CLASS_MODIFIERS: RDoc modifiers for classes
CONSTANT_MODIFIERS: RDoc modifiers for constants
DOT_DOC_FILENAME: Name of the dotfile that contains the description of files to be processed in the current directory
GENERAL_MODIFIERS: General RDoc modifiers
KNOWN_CLASSES: Ruby’s built-in classes, modules and exceptions
METHOD_MODIFIERS: RDoc modifiers for methods
VERSION: RDoc version you are using
VISIBILITIES: Method visibilities

Public Class Methods

home ()

Searches and returns the directory for settings.

$HOME/.rdoc directory, if it exists.
The rdoc directory under the path specified by the XDG_DATA_HOME environment variable, if it is set.
$HOME/.local/share/rdoc directory.

Other than the home directory, the containing directory will be created automatically.

# File lib/rdoc.rb, line 153
def self.home
  rdoc_dir = begin
              File.expand_path('~/.rdoc')
            rescue ArgumentError
            end

  if File.directory?(rdoc_dir)
    rdoc_dir
  else
    require 'fileutils'
    begin
      # XDG
      xdg_data_home = ENV["XDG_DATA_HOME"] || File.join(File.expand_path("~"), '.local', 'share')
      unless File.exist?(xdg_data_home)
        FileUtils.mkdir_p xdg_data_home
      end
      File.join xdg_data_home, "rdoc"
    rescue Errno::EACCES
    end
  end
end

load_yaml ()

Loads the YAML backend used for .rdoc_options.

Psych is preferred and used whenever it can be required. Requiring yaml is not attempted as a fallback because yaml is merely a thin wrapper that loads Psych anyway. When Psych is genuinely unavailable, a minimal serializer shipped with RubyGems or Bundler is loaded instead, so that RDoc does not need a runtime dependency on Psych. Callers branch on whether Psych is defined and use ::yaml_serializer otherwise.

# File lib/rdoc.rb, line 112
def self.load_yaml
  begin
    gem 'psych'
  rescue NameError => e # --disable-gems
    raise unless e.name == :gem
  rescue Gem::LoadError
  end

  begin
    require 'psych'
  rescue ::LoadError
    # Psych is unavailable; load the stub serializer shipped with RubyGems,
    # or Bundler's copy on RubyGems older than 3.5 (Ruby 3.2) where
    # rubygems/yaml_serializer does not exist yet.
    begin
      require 'rubygems/yaml_serializer'
    rescue ::LoadError
      require 'bundler/yaml_serializer'
    end
  end
end

safe_mtime (file)

Returns +File.mtime(file)+, or nil if the file cannot be stat’d (missing, permission denied, etc.).

# File lib/rdoc.rb, line 179
def self.safe_mtime(file)
  File.mtime(file)
rescue SystemCallError
  nil
end

yaml_serializer ()

The minimal YAML serializer module loaded by ::load_yaml as a fallback. Only meaningful when Psych is not defined.

# File lib/rdoc.rb, line 138
def self.yaml_serializer
  defined?(Gem::YAMLSerializer) ? Gem::YAMLSerializer : Bundler::YAMLSerializer
end