Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Doxygen
open-in-new
<h2 id="history">History</h2> <p>The first version of Doxygen borrowed code from an early version of DOC++, developed by Roland Wunderling and Malte Zöckler at <a href="/facts/Zuse_Institute_Berlin/3ovWAS4b">Zuse Institute Berlin</a>. Later, the Doxygen code was rewritten by Dimitri van Heesch. </p> <h2 id="development">Development</h2> <p>The Doxygen source code is hosted at <a href="/facts/GitHub/n1hNCsc3">GitHub</a>, where the main developer, Dimitri van Heesch, contributes under the name "doxygen".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> Doxygen is written in C++, and consists of around 300,000 <a href="/facts/Source_lines_of_code/eHbXB39X">source lines of code</a>. For <a href="/facts/Lexical_analysis/T1JYWpIf">lexical analysis</a>, <a href="/facts/Lex_(software)/elaAUUIz">Lex</a> (or its replacement Flex) is run via approximately 35,000 lines of lex script. The <a href="/facts/Parsing/nRKB01S3">parsing</a> tool <a href="/facts/Yacc/sXp5I7Tw">Yacc</a> (or its replacement Bison) is also used, but only for minor tasks. The bulk of parsing is done via native C++ code. The <a href="/facts/Software_build/uTz1koQy">build system</a> includes <a href="/facts/CMake/ICCBEBKF">CMake</a> and <a href="/facts/Python_(programming_language)/YbuGqofa">Python</a> script. </p> <h2 id="design">Design</h2> <p>Like other documentation generators such as <a href="/facts/Javadoc/pm72Xvlf">Javadoc</a>, Doxygen extracts information from both the comment and the symbolic (non-comment) code. A comment is associated with a programming symbol by immediately preceding it in the code. <a href="/facts/Markup_language/WwhlNVIu">Markup</a> in the comments allows for controlling inclusion and formatting of the resulting documentation. </p><p>Doxygen supports output in many formats including: <a href="/facts/HTML/sSc3fT78">HTML</a>, <a href="/facts/Microsoft_Compiled_HTML_Help/IXu6orUI">CHM</a>, <a href="/facts/Rich_Text_Format/hsVH9Jot">RTF</a>, <a href="/facts/Portable_Document_Format/C9Mn1vYL">PDF</a>, <a href="/facts/LaTeX/c1lvjF0A">LaTeX</a>, <a href="/facts/PostScript/h2XwbcmC">PostScript</a> and <a href="/facts/Man_page/S2yYjy0J">man page</a>. </p><p>Doxygen can generate inheritance diagrams for C++ classes. For more advanced diagrams and graphs, Doxygen can use the "dot" tool from <a href="/facts/Graphviz/nf5D4paX">Graphviz</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="example">Example</h2> <p>All examples are given for languages with C-like comments where a multi-line comment starts with /* and a single line comment starts with //. </p><p>Doxygen ignores a comment unless it is marked specially. For a multi-line comment, the comment must start with /** or /*!. A markup tag is prefixed with a backslash (\) or an at-sign (@).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> The following is a relatively simple function comment block with markup in bold: </p> /** <i>Function description</i> @param <i>p1 Parameter description</i> @param <i>p2 Parameter description</i> @return <i>Return description</i> */ void foo(int p1, int p2) {} <p>A block can be formatted various ways. A common way is to left-align asterisks on each line which Doxygen does not include in the output. For example: </p> /** * <i>Function description</i> * @param <i>p1 Parameter description</i> * @param <i>p2 Parameter description</i> * @return <i>Return description</i> */ void foo(int p1, int p2) {} <p>Alternatively, a block can consist of a series of single-line comments. Doxygen accepts comments with an additional slash (/) or exclamation (!).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a> </p> /// <i>Function description</i> /// @param <i>p1 Parameter description</i> /// @param <i>p2 Parameter description</i> /// @return <i>Return description</i> void foo(int p1, int p2) {} <p>To locate a documentation comment to the right of the code, an additional < marker is required.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17"><sup>17</sup></a> This allows for an alternative approach for documenting parameters as shown below. </p> /** * <i>Function description</i> */ void foo(int p1 /**<Parameter description*/, int p2 /**<Parameter description*/) {} <p>A mathematic formula can be specified via <a href="/facts/LaTeX/c1lvjF0A">LaTeX</a> commands. For example: </p> /** * An inline equation @f$ e^{\pi i}+1 = 0 @f$ * A displayed equation: @f[ e^{\pi i}+1 = 0 @f] */ <p>A more complete example in C++: </p> /** * @file * @brief Time class header * @author John Doe <jdoe@example.com> * @version 1.0 * @copyright CC BY-SA or GFDL * @sa <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights">Wikipedia:Copyrights - Wikipedia</a> */ /** * Represents a moment of time * @author John Doe */ class Time { public: /** * Construct with a duration since Jan 1, 1970 * @param millis A number of milliseconds */ explicit Time(long long millis) : m_millis(millis) { } /** * Get a new instance with the current time * @return Instance */ static Time now() { // ... } private: long long m_millis; ///< Milliseconds since Jan 1, 1970 }; <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul> <li>Free and open-source software portal</li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Comparison_of_documentation_generators/xLydRU5z">Comparison of documentation generators</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/API_Writer/WU7NW5Pg">API Writer</a></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://www.doxygen.org/">Official website</a> </li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"Doxygen Manual: Frequently Asked Questions". www.doxygen.nl. <a href="https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/faq.html" target="_blank">https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/faq.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Perkel, Jeffrey M. (2015-11-22). "Get With the Program: DIY tips for adding coding to your analysis arsenal". The Scientist (Journal). The Scientist. <a href="https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/43632/title/Get-With-the-Program/" target="_blank">https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/43632/title/Get-With-the-Program/</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Sabin, Mihaela (2015-11-22). "Doxygen". OpenComputing (Wiki). University of New Hampshire. Archived from the original on 2015-11-23. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151123030546/http://foss.unh.edu/resources/index.php/Doxygen" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20151123030546/http://foss.unh.edu/resources/index.php/Doxygen</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"Doxygen". Free Software Directory (Wiki). 2015-11-22. <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Doxygen" target="_blank">https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Doxygen</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"Documentation". Rosetta Code (Wiki). 2015-11-22. <a href="https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Documentation" target="_blank">https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Documentation</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>"Documentation: C". Rosetta Code (Wiki). 2015-11-22. <a href="https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Documentation#C" target="_blank">https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Documentation#C</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>"Documentation: Objective-C". Rosetta Code (Wiki). 2015-11-22. <a href="https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Documentation#Objective-C" target="_blank">https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Documentation#Objective-C</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>"Doxygen::Filter::Perl - A perl code pre-filter for Doxygen - metacpan.org". metacpan.org. <a href="https://metacpan.org/pod/Doxygen::Filter::Perl" target="_blank">https://metacpan.org/pod/Doxygen::Filter::Perl</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>"Doxygen Manual: Getting started". www.doxygen.nl. <a href="https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/starting.html" target="_blank">https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/starting.html</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>"Automatic Python API documentation generation tools". python.org wiki (Wiki). 2015-11-22. <a href="https://wiki.python.org/moin/DocumentationTools#Automatic_Python_API_documentation_generation_tools" target="_blank">https://wiki.python.org/moin/DocumentationTools#Automatic_Python_API_documentation_generation_tools</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Brown, Eric W. "doxypypy: A Doxygen filter for Python" – via PyPI. <a href="https://github.com/Feneric/doxypypy" target="_blank">https://github.com/Feneric/doxypypy</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>"Doxygen Manual: Getting started". www.doxygen.nl. <a href="https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/starting.html" target="_blank">https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/starting.html</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>"doxygen/doxygen". June 9, 2021 – via GitHub. <a href="https://github.com/doxygen/doxygen" target="_blank">https://github.com/doxygen/doxygen</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>"Doxygen Manual: Graphs and diagrams". www.doxygen.nl. <a href="https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/diagrams.html" target="_blank">https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/diagrams.html</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>Doxygen: Special Commands <a href="https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/commands.html" target="_blank">https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/commands.html</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>Doxygen: Documenting the code - §Comment blocks for C-like languages <a href="https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/docblocks.html#cppblock" target="_blank">https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/docblocks.html#cppblock</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:17"><p>Doxygen: Documenting the code - §Putting documentation after members <a href="https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/docblocks.html#memberdoc" target="_blank">https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/docblocks.html#memberdoc</a> <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>