[PATCH] Discuss a couple common errors in kernel-doc usage.

[PATCH] Discuss a couple common errors in kernel-doc usage.

[Robert P. J. Day]

  Explain a couple of the most common errors in kernel-doc usage.

Signed-off-by: Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@mindspring.com>

---

  seems useful to emphasize these issues since they occur occasionally
in the source.

diff --git a/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt b/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
index 284e7e1..ba50129 100644
--- a/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
@@ -107,10 +107,14 @@ The format of the block comment is like this:
  * (section header: (section description)? )*
 (*)?*/

-The short function description cannot be multiline, but the other
-descriptions can be (and they can contain blank lines). Avoid putting a
-spurious blank line after the function name, or else the description will
-be repeated!
+The short function description ***cannot be multiline***, but the other
+descriptions can be (and they can contain blank lines).  If you continue
+that initial short description onto a second line, that second line will
+appear further down at the beginning of the description section, which is
+almost certainly not what you had in mind.
+
+Avoid putting a spurious blank line after the function name, or else the
+description will be repeated!

 All descriptive text is further processed, scanning for the following special
 patterns, which are highlighted appropriately.
@@ -121,6 +125,31 @@ patterns, which are highlighted appropriately.
 '@parameter' - name of a parameter
 '%CONST' - name of a constant.

+NOTE 1:  The multi-line descriptive text you provide does *not* recognize
+line breaks, so if you try to format some text nicely, as in:
+
+  Return codes
+    0 - cool
+    1 - invalid arg
+    2 - out of memory
+
+this will all run together and produce:
+
+  Return codes 0 - cool 1 - invalid arg 2 - out of memory
+
+NOTE 2:  If the descriptive text you provide has lines that begin with
+some phrase followed by a colon, each of those phrases will be taken as
+a new section heading, which means you should similarly try to avoid text
+like:
+
+  Return codes:
+    0: cool
+    1: invalid arg
+    2: out of memory
+
+every line of which would start a new section.  Again, probably not
+what you were after.
+
 Take a look around the source tree for examples.

Re: [PATCH] Discuss a couple common errors in kernel-doc usage.

[Randy Dunlap]

On Fri, 5 Jan 2007 10:03:53 -0500 (EST) Robert P. J. Day wrote:

> 
>   Explain a couple of the most common errors in kernel-doc usage.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@mindspring.com>

Acked-by: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com>

It seems that you have been looking at my kdoc todo list....


> ---
> 
>   seems useful to emphasize these issues since they occur occasionally
> in the source.
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt b/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
> index 284e7e1..ba50129 100644
> --- a/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
> @@ -107,10 +107,14 @@ The format of the block comment is like this:
>   * (section header: (section description)? )*
>  (*)?*/
> 
> -The short function description cannot be multiline, but the other
> -descriptions can be (and they can contain blank lines). Avoid putting a
> -spurious blank line after the function name, or else the description will
> -be repeated!
> +The short function description ***cannot be multiline***, but the other
> +descriptions can be (and they can contain blank lines).  If you continue
> +that initial short description onto a second line, that second line will
> +appear further down at the beginning of the description section, which is
> +almost certainly not what you had in mind.
> +
> +Avoid putting a spurious blank line after the function name, or else the
> +description will be repeated!
> 
>  All descriptive text is further processed, scanning for the following special
>  patterns, which are highlighted appropriately.
> @@ -121,6 +125,31 @@ patterns, which are highlighted appropriately.
>  '@parameter' - name of a parameter
>  '%CONST' - name of a constant.
> 
> +NOTE 1:  The multi-line descriptive text you provide does *not* recognize
> +line breaks, so if you try to format some text nicely, as in:
> +
> +  Return codes
> +    0 - cool
> +    1 - invalid arg
> +    2 - out of memory
> +
> +this will all run together and produce:
> +
> +  Return codes 0 - cool 1 - invalid arg 2 - out of memory
> +
> +NOTE 2:  If the descriptive text you provide has lines that begin with
> +some phrase followed by a colon, each of those phrases will be taken as
> +a new section heading, which means you should similarly try to avoid text
> +like:
> +
> +  Return codes:
> +    0: cool
> +    1: invalid arg
> +    2: out of memory
> +
> +every line of which would start a new section.  Again, probably not
> +what you were after.
> +
>  Take a look around the source tree for examples.
> 
> 
> -

---
~Randy

Re: [PATCH] Discuss a couple common errors in kernel-doc usage.

[Pavel Machek]

Hi!

>   Explain a couple of the most common errors in kernel-doc usage.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@mindspring.com>
> 
> ---
> 
>   seems useful to emphasize these issues since they occur occasionally
> in the source.
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt b/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
> index 284e7e1..ba50129 100644
> --- a/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
> @@ -107,10 +107,14 @@ The format of the block comment is like this:
>   * (section header: (section description)? )*
>  (*)?*/
> 
> -The short function description cannot be multiline, but the other
> -descriptions can be (and they can contain blank lines). Avoid putting a
> -spurious blank line after the function name, or else the description will
> -be repeated!
> +The short function description ***cannot be multiline***, but the other

Can we shout a bit less?

							Pavel
-- 
Thanks for all the (sleeping) penguins.