From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-7.7 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00,DKIM_SIGNED, DKIM_VALID,DKIM_VALID_AU,FREEMAIL_FORGED_FROMDOMAIN,FREEMAIL_FROM, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,MENTIONS_GIT_HOSTING, SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS,URIBL_BLOCKED autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A96ECC433B4 for ; Wed, 21 Apr 2021 19:24:28 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 79EA261430 for ; Wed, 21 Apr 2021 19:24:28 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S236477AbhDUTZA (ORCPT ); Wed, 21 Apr 2021 15:25:00 -0400 Received: from lindbergh.monkeyblade.net ([23.128.96.19]:38980 "EHLO lindbergh.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S235949AbhDUTY7 (ORCPT ); Wed, 21 Apr 2021 15:24:59 -0400 Received: from mail-vs1-xe36.google.com (mail-vs1-xe36.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:4864:20::e36]) by lindbergh.monkeyblade.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 96830C06174A for ; Wed, 21 Apr 2021 12:24:25 -0700 (PDT) Received: by mail-vs1-xe36.google.com with SMTP id d25so15076867vsp.1 for ; Wed, 21 Apr 2021 12:24:25 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc; bh=rpw3HnSoPex755DRcO5g3WiG7qEIWl72qHNoKQxjqtc=; b=hDHnlhw+alfxBs1pHcG5ulwuLcfAjZRBkDtIyB0xDjko38R+AnY8id3sOW8OBRl0nJ rbLEGLXoSkMfhVNhy5A3VxSablFbpq3xAkAp+DYvA3+4rbe6WLQcAovxrx06h05OvFx2 AHzWuM+srWdBDrsYzD2QMyYV9aVT9U9n3pbZEQt/E3KzznB8b9L7xsALkSglvuh8kD6r UO0obCdng5/4yrxnwqXo1Oc14yPpEv4pl1EpaJKwSAj4yE4hDzEPnYjohx0xOJbvGKwU oXTtjkt1yqXdosQcUjgyY15yKyHPoqpl14CxGu09ErCJNJn9AW/lxg5ArfI0tn/LzdI1 Rzgg== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date :message-id:subject:to:cc; bh=rpw3HnSoPex755DRcO5g3WiG7qEIWl72qHNoKQxjqtc=; b=bWKjO6ca6AZ7z4XRBcUFiPTGqdKmFqzl5+kapOarWFZ/qngMapTQR5D0iEYMV0S3lU POn3SBAd/Iueg4XVWSGkwCW7nIML1ozWyrth7gnje8068KeSOuo8l8JekZlrIiQuRKtC PrYYTuaCXyIMhMSLN/iMsxIQNm6XOYZgHt+67YVvrG8mrafG0aAExJrDtQRRI232redd 4IJV9YtCB/mpy0P/AoAMKlMfUrbfWLJHoWqRz+XiCxLysPfj1Ti2Ef1K0kO2E8MzxyPm N5Q3HNZ4/YHAcLVGblB+CCWU9pT4OM/NKxni3vznsVKaqt7KJKeTs/0WVnBd0oEeh4wb xa9w== X-Gm-Message-State: AOAM531fOHtPNHybrHDfA4LnNyvbzddlpnyREK8qxdgpty9V0FKP+I0j /Ed4Ktll3McV40zFr/3Tv+wnpWjUWbPmFEdqYdY= X-Google-Smtp-Source: ABdhPJwhU93H5A0V4NP59BlMN06I08BEkIUah/NLwa1kGZluq9WacROinIj4BqmgGf9pvl1Faz7lx4E7LUMOCJBKsmA= X-Received: by 2002:a67:f498:: with SMTP id o24mr5323736vsn.6.1619033064727; Wed, 21 Apr 2021 12:24:24 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: Grant Seltzer Richman Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2021 15:24:13 -0400 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Generating libbpf API documentation To: Andrii Nakryiko Cc: bpf Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: bpf@vger.kernel.org On Tue, Apr 20, 2021 at 12:26 AM Andrii Nakryiko wrote: > > On Fri, Apr 16, 2021 at 12:38 PM Grant Seltzer Richman > wrote: > > > > On Tue, Mar 16, 2021 at 4:14 PM Grant Seltzer Richman > > wrote: > > > > > > On Mon, Mar 15, 2021 at 8:47 PM Andrii Nakryiko > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > On Mon, Mar 15, 2021 at 9:51 AM Grant Seltzer Richman > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > Hi all, > > > > > > > > > > I have been experimenting with ways to contribute documentation to > > > > > libbpf to make it easier for developers of bpf projects to use it. > > > > > With the goal of making a documentation site that is easy to > > > > > maintain/generate I found Doxygen (many of you may have experience > > > > > with it, I did not). I set up a CI/CD workflow using github actions > > > > > that runs doxygen on the libbpf mirror hosted there, and hosts the > > > > > produced HTML using netlify. You can find the currently hosted version > > > > > of it at https://libbpf-docs.netlify.app (I would gladly donate a real > > > > > domain name for this purpose). The docs generation workflow is in my > > > > > github repo here: https://github.com/grantseltzer/libbpf-docs > > > > > > > > Thanks for investigating this! I've look at libbpf-docs.netlify.app, > > > > and it seems like it just contains a list of structs and their fields > > > > (both those that are part of libbpf API, as well as internal). Out of > > > > all functions only two are listed there (libbpf_nla_parse_nested and > > > > libbpf_nla_parse) and both are not part of libbpf API as well. So I > > > > understand that I don't see any comments due to the '/**' format > > > > (though it would be easy to run sed script adding it everywhere, just > > > > as part of an experiment), but I'm not sure why none of API functions > > > > are present there? > > > > > > > > I think kernel docs used to be hosted on readthedocs.org, seems like > > > > they are also providing hosting for open-source projects, so that > > > > would solve the problem of the hosting. Have you looked at that > > > > solution? It definitely has a bit more modern UI that > > > > Doxygen-generated one :) but I don't know what are the real > > > > differences between Sphinx and Doxygen and which one we should choose. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > In order to make this work all we would need is to format comments > > > > > above functions we want to document. Doxygen requires that the comment > > > > > just be in a block that starts with `/**`. I don't think doxygen > > > > > specific directives should be committed to code but I think this is a > > > > > fine convention to follow. Other doxygen directives (i.e. having > > > > > `@file` in every file) can be faked using a step I have in the github > > > > > actions. > > > > > > > > > > What does everyone think? Can we agree on this convention and start > > > > > contributing documentation in this way? Any pitfalls to doxygen I'm > > > > > not familiar with? > > > > > > > > > > Thanks! > > > > > > As far as I understand Doxygen's only criteria for generating > > > documentation for functions is if the correctly formatted comment is > > > present. I've changed the repo that the libbpf-docs.netlify.app > > > website uses to track a fork libbpf I have on my personal account. I > > > added comments above some ringbuffer functions to demonstrate this. > > > > > > Interestingly the two functions that already show up > > > (libbpf_nla_parse/parse_nested) have comments which are specifically > > > formatted for doxygen, even including directives for arguments and > > > related functions. > > > > > > I have heard of Sphinx/read-the-docs but didn't look too deeply into > > > it, I'll check it out and report back with my findings! > > > > I've finally gotten a chance to circle around to this. I investigated > > Sphinx and read the docs. As far as I can tell Doxygen is still > > required for generating that docs from code. Sphinx seems to typically > > be used to transform markdown documentation files into themed html > > pages. Sphinx would also enable us to host the documentation on > > readthedocs's, but it would still be the output of Doxygen, meaning it > > wouldn't have the nice theme that you see on other readthedocs pages. > > > > I have a barebones example set up of what that would look like at > > libbpf.readthedocs.io which pulls from my fork of the github mirror > > here: github.com/grantseltzer/libbpf > > > > The advantage of this approach is only having free hosting and having > > a 'readthedocs.io' domain. It would still require CI for pulling in > > libbpf releases, appending doxygen directives, and of course > > committing comments in code next to api functions/types. > > > > I didn't have much time to investigate Sphinx vs Doxygen. Reding [0] > diagonally, seems like you need few extensions (breathe and > sphinx_rtd_theme) to make everything work. It also seems like > readthedocs will be able to automatically pull and generate > documentation, so if all that is true, it still seems like Sphinx + > readthedocs is the better and more modern approach. > > [0] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/clear-functional-c-documentation-with-sphinx-breathe-doxygen-cmake/ That link proved helpful. I was not using the breathe plugin directives correctly in the previous iteration. Thanks! > > > I prefer the previous approach (github actions + netlify/github pages) > > but regardless would happily set this up if we can start an initiative > > to add those code comments in code, which I'd also like to help > > contribute to. I'd also be happy to hear of suggestions of free/open > > source alternatives for CI. > > We currently use Travis CI for libbpf CI, but I'm not very happy with > it and ideally we should move to GitHub Actions or something along > those lines. I recently set up some github actions workflow for the project I help maintain and really like it so far, I would be happy to help transition. > > > > > Andrii, do you run the libbpf github org and mirror repo? > > Yes, I have admin access along Alexei and Daniel. So we'll be able to > set up whatever needs to be set up. I just pushed changes for libbpf.readthedocs.io for you to check out. The 'API' page has the auto generated docs based on public functions/structs/enums in libbpf.h. There's a couple of functions that I added bogus test comments to show what documentation would look like. (`libbpf_num_possible_cpus` has a good example). Also the 'BPF Program Types' page is just to serve as an example of how we can include documentation that isn't just auto generated from code. I need to read the `sync-kernel.sh` script to better understand how the mirror works, but after that would it be helpful to open a github PR? Once that'd get merged I'd transfer the readthedocs libbpf page to track it. I also want to discuss this on the linux-doc mailing list for input.