1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
1005
1006
1007
1008
1009
1010
1011
1012
1013
1014
1015
1016
1017
1018
1019
1020
1021
1022
1023
1024
1025
1026
1027
1028
1029
1030
1031
1032
1033
1034
1035
1036
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042
1043
1044
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057
1058
1059
1060
1061
1062
1063
1064
1065
1066
1067
1068
1069
1070
1071
1072
1073
1074
1075
1076
1077
1078
1079
1080
1081
1082
1083
1084
1085
1086
1087
1088
1089
1090
1091
1092
1093
1094
1095
1096
1097
1098
1099
1100
1101
1102
1103
1104
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109
1110
1111
1112
1113
1114
1115
1116
1117
1118
1119
1120
1121
1122
1123
1124
1125
1126
1127
1128
1129
1130
1131
1132
1133
1134
1135
1136
1137
1138
1139
1140
1141
1142
1143
1144
1145
1146
1147
1148
1149
1150
1151
1152
1153
1154
1155
1156
1157
1158
1159
1160
1161
1162
1163
1164
1165
1166
1167
1168
1169
1170
1171
1172
1173
1174
1175
1176
1177
1178
1179
1180
1181
1182
1183
1184
1185
1186
1187
1188
1189
1190
1191
1192
1193
1194
1195
1196
1197
1198
1199
1200
1201
1202
1203
1204
1205
1206
1207
1208
1209
1210
1211
1212
1213
1214
1215
1216
1217
1218
1219
1220
1221
1222
1223
1224
1225
1226
1227
1228
1229
1230
1231
1232
1233
1234
1235
1236
1237
1238
1239
1240
1241
1242
1243
1244
1245
1246
1247
1248
1249
1250
1251
1252
1253
1254
1255
1256
1257
1258
1259
1260
1261
1262
1263
1264
1265
1266
1267
1268
1269
1270
1271
1272
1273
1274
1275
1276
1277
1278
1279
1280
1281
1282
1283
1284
1285
1286
1287
1288
1289
1290
1291
1292
1293
1294
1295
1296
1297
1298
1299
1300
1301
1302
1303
1304
1305
1306
1307
1308
1309
1310
1311
1312
1313
1314
1315
1316
1317
1318
1319
1320
1321
1322
1323
1324
1325
1326
1327
1328
1329
1330
1331
1332
1333
1334
1335
1336
1337
1338
1339
1340
1341
1342
1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348
1349
1350
1351
1352
1353
1354
1355
1356
1357
1358
1359
1360
1361
1362
1363
1364
1365
1366
1367
1368
1369
1370
1371
1372
1373
1374
1375
1376
1377
1378
1379
1380
1381
1382
1383
1384
1385
1386
1387
1388
1389
1390
1391
1392
1393
1394
1395
1396
1397
1398
1399
1400
1401
1402
1403
1404
1405
1406
1407
1408
1409
1410
1411
1412
1413
1414
1415
1416
1417
1418
1419
1420
1421
1422
1423
1424
1425
1426
1427
1428
1429
1430
1431
1432
1433
1434
1435
1436
1437
1438
1439
1440
1441
1442
1443
1444
1445
1446
1447
1448
1449
1450
1451
1452
1453
1454
1455
1456
1457
1458
1459
1460
1461
1462
1463
1464
1465
1466
1467
1468
1469
1470
1471
1472
1473
1474
1475
1476
1477
1478
1479
1480
1481
1482
1483
1484
1485
1486
1487
1488
1489
1490
1491
1492
1493
1494
1495
1496
1497
1498
1499
1500
1501
1502
1503
1504
1505
1506
1507
1508
1509
1510
1511
1512
1513
1514
1515
1516
1517
1518
1519
1520
1521
1522
1523
1524
1525
1526
1527
1528
1529
1530
1531
1532
1533
1534
1535
1536
1537
1538
1539
1540
1541
1542
1543
1544
1545
1546
1547
1548
1549
1550
1551
1552
1553
1554
1555
1556
1557
1558
1559
1560
1561
1562
1563
1564
1565
1566
1567
1568
1569
1570
1571
1572
1573
1574
1575
1576
1577
1578
1579
1580
1581
1582
1583
1584
1585
1586
1587
1588
1589
1590
1591
1592
1593
1594
1595
1596
1597
1598
1599
1600
1601
1602
1603
1604
1605
1606
1607
1608
1609
1610
1611
1612
1613
1614
1615
1616
1617
1618
1619
1620
1621
1622
1623
1624
1625
1626
1627
1628
1629
1630
1631
1632
1633
1634
1635
1636
1637
1638
1639
1640
1641
1642
1643
1644
1645
1646
1647
1648
1649
1650
1651
1652
1653
1654
1655
1656
1657
1658
1659
1660
1661
1662
1663
1664
1665
1666
1667
1668
1669
1670
1671
1672
1673
1674
1675
1676
1677
1678
1679
1680
1681
1682
1683
1684
1685
1686
1687
1688
1689
1690
1691
1692
1693
1694
1695
1696
1697
1698
1699
1700
1701
1702
1703
1704
1705
1706
1707
1708
1709
1710
1711
1712
1713
1714
1715
1716
1717
1718
1719
1720
1721
1722
1723
1724
1725
1726
1727
1728
1729
1730
1731
1732
1733
1734
1735
1736
1737
1738
1739
1740
1741
1742
1743
1744
1745
1746
1747
1748
1749
1750
1751
1752
1753
1754
1755
1756
1757
1758
1759
1760
1761
1762
1763
1764
1765
1766
1767
1768
1769
1770
1771
1772
1773
1774
1775
1776
1777
1778
1779
1780
1781
1782
1783
1784
1785
1786
1787
1788
1789
1790
1791
1792
1793
1794
1795
1796
1797
1798
1799
1800
1801
1802
1803
1804
1805
1806
1807
1808
1809
1810
1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035
2036
2037
2038
2039
2040
2041
2042
2043
2044
2045
2046
2047
2048
2049
2050
2051
2052
2053
2054
2055
2056
2057
2058
2059
2060
2061
2062
2063
2064
2065
2066
2067
2068
2069
2070
2071
2072
2073
2074
2075
2076
2077
2078
2079
2080
2081
2082
2083
2084
2085
2086
2087
2088
2089
2090
2091
2092
2093
2094
2095
2096
2097
2098
2099
2100
2101
2102
2103
2104
2105
2106
2107
2108
2109
2110
2111
2112
2113
2114
2115
2116
2117
2118
2119
2120
2121
2122
2123
2124
2125
2126
2127
2128
2129
2130
2131
2132
2133
2134
2135
2136
2137
2138
2139
2140
2141
2142
2143
2144
2145
2146
2147
2148
2149
2150
2151
2152
2153
2154
2155
2156
2157
2158
2159
2160
2161
2162
2163
2164
2165
2166
2167
2168
2169
2170
2171
2172
2173
2174
2175
2176
2177
2178
2179
2180
2181
2182
2183
2184
2185
2186
2187
2188
2189
2190
2191
2192
2193
2194
2195
2196
2197
2198
2199
2200
2201
2202
2203
2204
2205
2206
2207
2208
2209
2210
2211
2212
2213
2214
2215
2216
2217
2218
2219
2220
2221
2222
2223
2224
2225
2226
2227
2228
2229
2230
2231
2232
2233
2234
2235
2236
2237
2238
2239
2240
2241
2242
2243
2244
2245
2246
2247
2248
2249
2250
2251
2252
2253
2254
2255
2256
2257
2258
2259
2260
2261
2262
2263
2264
2265
2266
2267
2268
2269
2270
2271
2272
2273
2274
2275
2276
2277
2278
2279
2280
2281
2282
2283
2284
2285
2286
2287
2288
2289
2290
2291
2292
2293
2294
2295
2296
2297
2298
2299
2300
2301
2302
2303
2304
2305
2306
2307
2308
2309
2310
2311
2312
2313
2314
2315
2316
2317
2318
2319
2320
2321
2322
2323
2324
2325
2326
2327
2328
2329
2330
2331
2332
2333
2334
2335
2336
2337
2338
2339
2340
2341
2342
2343
2344
2345
2346
2347
2348
2349
2350
2351
2352
2353
2354
2355
2356
2357
2358
2359
2360
2361
2362
2363
2364
2365
2366
2367
2368
2369
2370
2371
2372
2373
2374
2375
2376
2377
2378
2379
2380
2381
2382
2383
2384
2385
2386
2387
2388
2389
2390
2391
2392
2393
2394
2395
2396
2397
2398
2399
2400
2401
2402
2403
2404
2405
2406
2407
2408
2409
2410
2411
2412
2413
2414
2415
2416
2417
2418
2419
2420
2421
2422
2423
2424
2425
2426
2427
2428
2429
2430
2431
2432
2433
2434
2435
2436
2437
2438
2439
2440
2441
2442
2443
2444
2445
2446
2447
2448
2449
2450
2451
2452
2453
2454
2455
2456
2457
2458
2459
2460
2461
2462
2463
2464
2465
2466
2467
2468
2469
2470
2471
2472
2473
2474
2475
2476
2477
2478
2479
2480
2481
2482
2483
2484
2485
2486
2487
2488
2489
2490
2491
2492
2493
2494
2495
2496
2497
2498
2499
2500
2501
2502
2503
2504
2505
2506
2507
2508
2509
2510
2511
2512
2513
2514
2515
2516
2517
2518
2519
2520
2521
2522
2523
2524
2525
2526
2527
2528
2529
2530
2531
2532
2533
2534
2535
2536
2537
2538
2539
2540
2541
2542
2543
2544
2545
2546
2547
2548
2549
2550
2551
2552
2553
2554
2555
2556
2557
2558
2559
2560
2561
2562
2563
2564
2565
2566
2567
2568
2569
2570
2571
2572
2573
2574
2575
2576
2577
2578
2579
2580
2581
2582
2583
2584
2585
2586
2587
2588
2589
2590
2591
2592
2593
2594
2595
2596
2597
2598
2599
2600
2601
2602
2603
2604
2605
2606
2607
2608
2609
2610
2611
2612
2613
2614
2615
2616
2617
2618
2619
2620
2621
2622
2623
2624
2625
2626
2627
2628
2629
2630
2631
2632
2633
2634
2635
2636
2637
2638
2639
2640
2641
2642
2643
2644
2645
2646
2647
2648
2649
2650
2651
2652
2653
2654
2655
2656
2657
2658
2659
2660
2661
2662
2663
2664
2665
2666
2667
2668
2669
2670
2671
2672
2673
2674
2675
2676
2677
2678
2679
2680
2681
2682
2683
2684
2685
2686
2687
2688
2689
2690
2691
2692
2693
2694
2695
2696
2697
2698
2699
2700
2701
2702
2703
2704
2705
2706
2707
2708
2709
2710
2711
2712
2713
2714
2715
2716
2717
2718
2719
2720
2721
2722
2723
2724
2725
2726
2727
2728
2729
2730
2731
2732
2733
2734
2735
2736
2737
2738
2739
2740
2741
2742
2743
2744
2745
2746
2747
2748
2749
2750
2751
2752
2753
2754
2755
2756
2757
2758
2759
2760
2761
2762
2763
2764
2765
2766
2767
2768
2769
2770
2771
2772
2773
2774
2775
2776
2777
2778
2779
2780
2781
2782
2783
2784
2785
2786
2787
2788
2789
2790
2791
2792
2793
2794
2795
2796
2797
2798
2799
2800
2801
2802
2803
2804
2805
2806
2807
2808
2809
2810
2811
2812
2813
2814
2815
2816
2817
2818
2819
2820
2821
2822
2823
2824
2825
2826
2827
2828
2829
2830
2831
2832
2833
2834
2835
2836
2837
2838
2839
2840
2841
2842
2843
2844
2845
2846
2847
2848
2849
2850
2851
2852
2853
2854
2855
2856
2857
2858
2859
2860
2861
2862
2863
2864
2865
2866
2867
2868
2869
2870
2871
2872
2873
2874
2875
2876
2877
2878
2879
2880
2881
2882
2883
2884
2885
2886
2887
2888
2889
2890
2891
2892
2893
2894
2895
2896
2897
2898
2899
2900
2901
2902
2903
2904
2905
2906
2907
2908
2909
2910
2911
2912
2913
2914
2915
2916
2917
2918
2919
2920
2921
2922
2923
2924
2925
2926
2927
2928
2929
2930
2931
2932
2933
2934
2935
2936
2937
2938
2939
2940
2941
2942
2943
2944
2945
2946
2947
2948
2949
2950
2951
2952
2953
2954
2955
2956
2957
2958
2959
2960
2961
2962
2963
2964
2965
2966
2967
2968
2969
2970
2971
2972
2973
2974
2975
2976
2977
2978
2979
2980
2981
2982
2983
2984
2985
2986
2987
2988
2989
2990
2991
2992
2993
2994
2995
2996
2997
2998
2999
3000
3001
3002
3003
3004
3005
3006
3007
3008
3009
3010
3011
3012
3013
3014
3015
3016
3017
3018
3019
3020
3021
3022
3023
3024
3025
3026
3027
3028
3029
3030
3031
3032
3033
3034
3035
3036
3037
3038
3039
3040
3041
3042
3043
3044
3045
3046
3047
3048
3049
3050
3051
3052
3053
3054
3055
3056
3057
3058
3059
3060
3061
3062
3063
3064
3065
3066
3067
3068
3069
3070
3071
3072
3073
3074
3075
3076
3077
3078
3079
3080
3081
3082
3083
3084
3085
3086
3087
3088
3089
3090
3091
3092
3093
3094
3095
3096
3097
3098
3099
3100
3101
|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ascii" ?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ascii" />
<meta name="generator" content="Docutils 0.5: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/" />
<title>Epydoc</title>
<meta name="author" content="Edward Loper" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="custom.css" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
<div class="document" id="epydoc">
<h1 class="title">Epydoc</h1>
<h2 class="subtitle" id="automatic-api-documentation-generation-for-python">Automatic API Documentation Generation for Python</h2>
<table class="docinfo" frame="void" rules="none">
<col class="docinfo-name" />
<col class="docinfo-content" />
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><th class="docinfo-name">Author:</th>
<td><a class="first last reference external" href="mailto:edloper@gradient.cis.upenn.edu">Edward Loper</a></td></tr>
<tr><th class="docinfo-name">Version:</th>
<td>3.0b1</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div class="abstract topic">
<p class="topic-title first">Abstract</p>
<p>Epydoc is a tool for generating API documentation for Python modules,
based on their docstrings. For an example of epydoc's output, see the API
documentation for epydoc itself (<a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/api/">html</a>, <a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/epydoc.pdf">pdf</a>). A lightweight markup language
called <a class="reference internal" href="#the-epytext-markup-language">epytext</a> can be used to format docstrings, and to add information
about specific fields, such as parameters and instance variables. Epydoc
also understands docstrings written in <a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html">reStructuredText</a>, <a class="reference external" href="http://java.sun.com/j2se/javadoc/">Javadoc</a>, and
plaintext. For a more extensive example of epydoc's output, see the <a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/stdlib/">API
documentation for Python 2.4</a>.</p>
</div>
<!-- $Id: manual.txt 1559 2007-02-27 06:42:46Z edloper $ -->
<div class="contents topic" id="contents">
<p class="topic-title first">Contents</p>
<ul class="auto-toc simple">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#installing-epydoc" id="id19">1 Installing Epydoc</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#downloading-epydoc" id="id20">1.1 Downloading Epydoc</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#getting-epydoc-from-subversion" id="id21">1.2 Getting Epydoc from Subversion</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#installing-from-the-rpm-file" id="id22">1.3 Installing from the RPM File</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#installing-from-the-windows-installer" id="id23">1.4 Installing from the Windows Installer</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#installing-from-the-source-distribution-using-make" id="id24">1.5 Installing from the Source Distribution (using make)</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#installing-from-the-source-distribution-without-make" id="id25">1.6 Installing from the Source Distribution (without make)</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#installing-on-debian" id="id26">1.7 Installing on Debian</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#using-epydoc" id="id27">2 Using Epydoc</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-command-line-interface" id="id28">2.1 The Command Line Interface</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#command-line-usage-abbreviated" id="id29">2.1.1 Command Line Usage (Abbreviated)</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#examples" id="id30">2.1.2 Examples</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#configuration-files" id="id31">2.1.3 Configuration Files</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-graphical-interface" id="id32">2.2 The Graphical Interface</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#documentation-completeness-checks" id="id33">2.3 Documentation Completeness Checks</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#html-files" id="id34">2.4 HTML Files</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#css-stylesheets" id="id35">2.5 CSS Stylesheets</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#python-docstrings" id="id36">3 Python Docstrings</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#variable-docstrings" id="id37">3.1 Variable docstrings</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#items-visibility" id="id38">3.2 Items visibility</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-epytext-markup-language" id="id39">4 The Epytext Markup Language</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#a-brief-introduction" id="id40">4.1 A Brief Introduction</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#epytext-language-overview" id="id41">4.2 Epytext Language Overview</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#block-structure" id="id42">4.3 Block Structure</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#paragraphs" id="id43">4.3.1 Paragraphs</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#lists" id="id44">4.3.2 Lists</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#sections" id="id45">4.3.3 Sections</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#literal-blocks" id="id46">4.3.4 Literal Blocks</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#doctest-blocks" id="id47">4.3.5 Doctest Blocks</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#fields" id="id48">4.3.6 Fields</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#inline-markup" id="id49">4.4 Inline Markup</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#basic-inline-markup" id="id50">4.4.1 Basic Inline Markup</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#urls" id="id51">4.4.2 URLs</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#documentation-crossreference-links" id="id52">4.4.3 Documentation Crossreference Links</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#indexed-terms" id="id53">4.4.4 Indexed Terms</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#symbols" id="id54">4.4.5 Symbols</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#escaping" id="id55">4.4.6 Escaping</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#graphs" id="id56">4.4.7 Graphs</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#characters" id="id57">4.5 Characters</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#valid-characters" id="id58">4.5.1 Valid Characters</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#content-characters" id="id59">4.5.2 Content Characters</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#spaces-and-newlines" id="id60">4.5.3 Spaces and Newlines</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#epydoc-fields" id="id61">5 Epydoc Fields</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#field-markup" id="id62">5.1 Field Markup</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#supported-fields" id="id63">5.2 Supported Fields</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#functions-and-methods-parameters" id="id64">5.2.1 Functions and Methods parameters</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#variables-parameters" id="id65">5.2.2 Variables parameters</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#properties-parameters" id="id66">5.2.3 Properties parameters</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#grouping-and-sorting" id="id67">5.2.4 Grouping and Sorting</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#notes-and-warnings" id="id68">5.2.5 Notes and Warnings</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#status" id="id69">5.2.6 Status</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#formal-conditions" id="id70">5.2.7 Formal Conditions</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#bibliographic-information" id="id71">5.2.8 Bibliographic Information</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#other-fields" id="id72">5.2.9 Other fields</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#fields-synonyms" id="id73">5.3 Fields synonyms</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#module-metadata-variables" id="id74">5.4 Module metadata variables</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#adding-new-fields" id="id75">5.5 Adding New Fields</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#alternate-markup-languages" id="id76">6 Alternate Markup Languages</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#id13" id="id77">6.1 reStructuredText</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#default-role" id="id78">6.1.1 Default role</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#consolidated-fields" id="id79">6.1.2 Consolidated Fields</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#graph-directives" id="id80">6.1.3 Graph directives</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#colorized-snippets-directive" id="id81">6.1.4 Colorized snippets directive</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#external-api-links" id="id82">6.1.5 External API links</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#names-resolution" id="id83">6.1.5.1 Names resolution</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#linking-from-standalone-documents" id="id84">6.1.5.2 Linking from standalone documents</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#indexed-terms-in-restructuredtext" id="id85">6.1.6 Indexed Terms in reStructuredText</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#id15" id="id86">6.2 Javadoc</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#javadoc-fields" id="id87">6.2.1 Javadoc Fields</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#references" id="id88">7 References</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#command-line-usage" id="id89">7.1 Command Line Usage</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#sample-configuration-file" id="id90">7.2 Sample Configuration File</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#warnings-and-errors" id="id91">7.3 Warnings and Errors</a><ul class="auto-toc">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#epytext-warnings" id="id92">7.3.1 Epytext Warnings</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#field-warnings" id="id93">7.3.2 Field Warnings</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#epytext-errors" id="id94">7.3.3 Epytext Errors</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<!-- Include the document chapters -->
<div class="section" id="installing-epydoc">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id19">1 Installing Epydoc</a></h1>
<!-- $Id: manual-install.txt 1692 2008-01-30 17:11:29Z edloper $ -->
<div class="section" id="downloading-epydoc">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id20">1.1 Downloading Epydoc</a></h2>
<p>Epydoc can be downloaded from the <a class="reference external" href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=32455">SourceForge download page</a>. Epydoc is
available in five formats:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>RPM (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.noarch.rpm</span></tt>)</li>
<li>Windows installer (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.win32.exe</span></tt>)</li>
<li>Source install (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.tar.gz</span></tt>)</li>
<li>Source install (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.zip</span></tt>)</li>
<li>Source RPM (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.src.rpm</span></tt>)</li>
</ul>
<p>If you are installing on RedHat, I recommend that you use the RPM file. If you
are installing on Windows, I recommended that you use the windows installer.
Otherwise, you should use one of the source install files.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="getting-epydoc-from-subversion">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id21">1.2 Getting Epydoc from Subversion</a></h2>
<p>If you wish to keep up on the latest developments, you can get the latest
version of epydoc from the <a class="reference external" href="http://sourceforge.net/svn/?group_id=32455">subversion repository</a>:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[/home/edloper]$ svn co https://epydoc.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/epydoc/trunk/epydoc epydoc
[/home/edloper]$ ls epydoc
Makefile doc man sandbox src
</pre>
<p>This will create a directory named <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc</span></tt> containing the latest version of
epydoc. The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc</span></tt> package itself is in <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc/src/epydoc</span></tt> (so adding
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc/src</span></tt> to your <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">PYTHONPATH</span></tt> will let you use it). You should
periodically update your copy of the subversion repository, to make sure you
have all the latest changes:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[/home/edloper/epydoc]$ svn up
</pre>
<p>You can browse the subversion repository <a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.svn.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.cgi/epydoc/trunk/epydoc/">here</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="installing-from-the-rpm-file">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id22">1.3 Installing from the RPM File</a></h2>
<ol class="arabic">
<li><p class="first">Download the RPM file to a directory of your choice.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Use rpm to install the new package.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[/tmp]$ su
Password:
[/tmp]# rpm -i epydoc-3.0.1.noarch.rpm
</pre>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Once epydoc is installed, you can delete the RPM file.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[/tmp]# rm epydoc-3.0.1.rpm
</pre>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="section" id="installing-from-the-windows-installer">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id23">1.4 Installing from the Windows Installer</a></h2>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li>Download and run <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc-3.0.1.win32.exe</span></tt>.</li>
<li>Follow the on-screen instructions. Epydoc will be installed in the epydoc
subdirectory of your Python installation directory (typically
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">C:\Python24\</span></tt>).</li>
<li>The Windows installer creates two scripts in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Scripts</span></tt> subdirectory of
your Python installation directory: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.pyw</span></tt> opens the graphical user
interface, and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.py</span></tt> calls the command line interface. If you'd
like, you can create shortcuts from these scripts to more convenient
locations (such as your desktop or start menu).</li>
<li>Once epydoc is installed, you can delete <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc-3.0.1.win32.exe</span></tt>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="section" id="installing-from-the-source-distribution-using-make">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id24">1.5 Installing from the Source Distribution (using make)</a></h2>
<ol class="arabic">
<li><p class="first">Download an epydoc source distribution to a directory of your choice, and
uncompress it.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[/tmp]$ wget -q http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/epydoc/epydoc-3.0.1.tar.gz
[/tmp]$ gunzip epydoc-3.0.1.tar.gz
[/tmp]$ tar -xvf epydoc-3.0.1.tar
</pre>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Use <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">make</span> <span class="pre">install</span></tt> in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">eydoc-3.0.1/</span></tt> directory to install
epydoc.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[/tmp]$ cd epydoc-3.0.1/
[/tmp/epydoc-3.0.1]$ su
Password:
[/tmp/epydoc-3.0.1]# make install
running install
running build
[...]
copying build/scripts/epydoc -> /usr/bin
changing mode of /usr/bin/epydoc to 100775
</pre>
</li>
<li><p class="first">If you'd like to keep a local copy of the documentation, then use <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">make</span>
<span class="pre">installdocs</span></tt>. By default, this will install the documentation to
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/share/doc/</span></tt> and the man pages to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/share/man/</span></tt>. If you would
prefer to install documentation to different directories (such as
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/lib/doc</span></tt>), then edit the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">MAN</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">DOC</span></tt> variables at the top of
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Makefile</span></tt> before running <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">make</span> <span class="pre">installdocs</span></tt>.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[/tmp/epydoc-3.0.1]# make installdocs
</pre>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Once epydoc is installed, you can delete the installation directory and the
source distribution file.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[/tmp/epydoc-3.0.1]# cd ..
[/tmp]# rm -r epydoc-3.0.1
[/tmp]# rm epydoc-3.0.1.tar
</pre>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="section" id="installing-from-the-source-distribution-without-make">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id25">1.6 Installing from the Source Distribution (without make)</a></h2>
<ol class="arabic">
<li><p class="first">Download an epydoc source distribution to a directory of your choice, and
uncompress it.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[/tmp]$ wget -q http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/epydoc/epydoc-3.0.1.tar.gz
[/tmp]$ gunzip epydoc-3.0.1.tar.gz
[/tmp]$ tar -xvf epydoc-3.0.1.tar
</pre>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Use the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">setup.py</span></tt> script in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">eydoc-3.0.1/</span></tt> directory to install
epydoc.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[/tmp]$ cd epydoc-3.0.1/
[/tmp/epydoc-3.0.1]$ su
Password:
[/tmp/epydoc-3.0.1]# python setup.py install
running install
running build
[...]
copying build/scripts/epydoc -> /usr/bin
changing mode of /usr/bin/epydoc to 100775
[/tmp/epydoc-3.0.1]# cd ..
[/tmp]#
</pre>
</li>
<li><p class="first">If you'd like to keep a local copy of the documentation, then copy it to a
permanant location, such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/share/doc/</span></tt>. You may also want to copy
the man pages to a permanant location, such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/usr/share/man/</span></tt>.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[/tmp]# cp -r epydoc-3.0.1/doc/ /usr/share/doc/epydoc/
[/tmp]# cp epydoc-3.0.1/man/* /usr/share/man/
</pre>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Once epydoc is installed, you can delete the installation directory and the
source distribution file.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[/tmp]# rm -r epydoc-3.0.1
[/tmp]# rm epydoc-3.0.1.tar
</pre>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="section" id="installing-on-debian">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id26">1.7 Installing on Debian</a></h2>
<p>Epydoc 2.1 is available as a testing debian package (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">python-epydoc</span></tt>). The
epydoc documentation is also available as a package (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc-doc</span></tt>).</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="using-epydoc">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id27">2 Using Epydoc</a></h1>
<!-- $Id: manual-usage.txt 1554 2007-02-27 03:31:56Z edloper $ -->
<p>Epydoc provides two user interfaces:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>The command line interface, which is accessed via a script named <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc</span></tt>
(or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.py</span></tt> on Windows)</li>
<li>The graphical interface, which is accessed via a script named <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydocgui</span></tt>
(or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.pyw</span></tt> on Windows).</li>
</ul>
<p>Epydoc can also be accessed programmatically; see <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc's</span> <span class="pre">API</span>
<span class="pre">documentation</span></tt> for more information.</p>
<div class="section" id="the-command-line-interface">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id28">2.1 The Command Line Interface</a></h2>
<p>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc</span></tt> script extracts API documentation for a set of Python objects,
and writes it using a selected output format. Objects can be named using dotted
names, module filenames, or package directory names. (On Windows, this script
is named <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.py</span></tt>.)</p>
<div class="section" id="command-line-usage-abbreviated">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id29">2.1.1 Command Line Usage (Abbreviated)</a></h3>
<pre class="literal-block">
epydoc [--html|--pdf] [-o <em>DIR</em>] [--parse-only|--introspect-only] [-v|-q]
[--name <em>NAME</em>] [--url <em>URL</em>] [--docformat <em>NAME</em>] [--graph <em>GRAPHTYPE</em>]
[--inheritance <em>STYLE</em>] [--config <em>FILE</em>] <em>OBJECTS...</em>
</pre>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><em>OBJECTS...</em></dt>
<dd>A list of the Python objects that should be documented. Objects can be
specified using dotted names (such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.path</span></tt>), module filenames (such
as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc/epytext.py</span></tt>), or package directory names (such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc/</span></tt>).
Packages are expanded to include all sub-modules and sub-packages.</dd>
</dl>
<div class="epydoc-usage container">
<table class="docutils option-list" frame="void" rules="none">
<col class="option" />
<col class="description" />
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="option-group">
<kbd><span class="option">--html</span></kbd></td>
<td>Generate HTML output. (default)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="option-group">
<kbd><span class="option">--pdf</span></kbd></td>
<td>Generate Adobe Acrobat (PDF) output, using LaTeX.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="option-group" colspan="2">
<kbd><span class="option">-o <var>DIR</var></span>, <span class="option">--output <var>DIR</var></span>, <span class="option">--target <var>DIR</var></span></kbd></td>
</tr>
<tr><td> </td><td>The output directory.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="option-group" colspan="2">
<kbd><span class="option">--parse-only</span>, <span class="option">--introspect-only</span></kbd></td>
</tr>
<tr><td> </td><td>By default, epydoc will gather information about each Python object using
two methods: parsing the object's source code; and importing the object and
directly introspecting it. Epydoc combines the information obtained from
these two methods to provide more complete and accurate documentation.
However, if you wish, you can tell epydoc to use only one or the other of
these methods. For example, if you are running epydoc on untrusted code,
you should use the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--parse-only</span></tt> option.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="option-group">
<kbd><span class="option">-v</span>, <span class="option">-q</span></kbd></td>
<td>Increase (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-v</span></tt>) or decrease (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-q</span></tt>) the verbosity of the output. These
options may be repeated to further increase or decrease verbosity.
Docstring markup warnings are supressed unless <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-v</span></tt> is used at least once.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="option-group">
<kbd><span class="option">--name <var>NAME</var></span></kbd></td>
<td>The documented project's name.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="option-group">
<kbd><span class="option">--url <var>URL</var></span></kbd></td>
<td>The documented project's URL.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="option-group" colspan="2">
<kbd><span class="option">--docformat <var>NAME</var></span></kbd></td>
</tr>
<tr><td> </td><td>The markup language that should be used by default to process modules'
docstrings. This is only used for modules that do not define the special
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__docformat__</span></tt> variable; it is recommended that you explicitly specify
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__docformat__</span></tt> in all your modules.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="option-group" colspan="2">
<kbd><span class="option">--graph <var>GRAPHTYPE</var></span></kbd></td>
</tr>
<tr><td> </td><td><p class="first">Include graphs of type <em>GRAPHTYPE</em> in the generated output. Graphs are
generated using the Graphviz <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">dot</span></tt> executable. If this executable is not
on the path, then use <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--dotpath</span></tt> to specify its location. This option
may be repeated to include multiple graph types in the output. To include
all graphs, use <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--graph</span> <span class="pre">all</span></tt>. The available graph types are:</p>
<ul class="last simple">
<li><strong>classtree</strong>: displays each class's base classes and subclasses;</li>
<li><strong>callgraph</strong>: displays the callers and callees of each function or
method. These graphs are based on profiling information, which must be
specified using the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--pstate</span></tt> option.</li>
<li><strong>umlclass</strong>: displays each class's base classes and subclasses, using
UML style. Methods and attributes are listed in the classes where they
are defined. If type information is available about attributes (via the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@type</span></tt> field), then those types are displayed as separate classes, and
the attributes are displayed as associations.</li>
</ul>
</td></tr>
<tr><td class="option-group" colspan="2">
<kbd><span class="option">--inheritance <var>STYLE</var></span></kbd></td>
</tr>
<tr><td> </td><td><p class="first">The format that should be used to display inherited methods, variables, and
properties. Currently, three styles are supported. To see an example of each style,
click on it:</p>
<ul class="last simple">
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/examples/grouped/inh_example.Programmer-class.html">grouped</a>: Inherited objects are gathered into groups, based on which
class they are inherited from.</li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/examples/listed/inh_example.Programmer-class.html">listed</a>: Inherited objects are listed in a short list at the end of the
summary table.</li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/examples/included/inh_example.Programmer-class.html">included</a>: Inherited objects are mixed in with non-inherited objects.</li>
</ul>
</td></tr>
<tr><td class="option-group">
<kbd><span class="option">--config <var>FILE</var></span></kbd></td>
<td>Read the given configuration file, which can contain both options and
Python object names. This option may be used multiple times, if you wish
to use multiple configuration files. See <a class="reference internal" href="#configuration-files">Configuration Files</a> for more
information.</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>The complete list of command line options is available in the <a class="reference internal" href="#command-line-usage">Command Line
Usage</a> section.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="examples">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id30">2.1.2 Examples</a></h3>
<p>The following command will generate HTML documentation for the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys</span></tt> module,
and write it to the directory <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys_docs</span></tt>:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[epydoc]$ epydoc --html sys -o sys_docs
</pre>
<p>The following commands are used to produce the API documentation for epydoc
itself. The first command writes html output to the directory <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">html/api</span></tt>,
using <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc</span></tt> as the project name and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">http://epydoc.sourcforge.net</span></tt> as
the project URL. The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">white</span></tt> CSS style is used; inheritance is displayed
using the listed style; and all graphs are included in the output. The second
command writes pdf output to the file <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">api.pdf</span></tt> in the directory
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">latex/api</span></tt>, using <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Epydoc</span></tt> as the project name.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[epydoc]$ epydoc -v -o html/api --name epydoc --css white \
--url http://epydoc.sourceforge.net \
--inheritance listed --graph all src/epydoc
[epydoc]$ epydoc -v -o latex/api --pdf --name "Epydoc" src/epydoc
</pre>
</div>
<div class="section" id="configuration-files">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id31">2.1.3 Configuration Files</a></h3>
<p>Configuration files, specified using the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--config</span></tt> option, may be used to
specify both the list of objects to document, and the options that should be
used to document them. Configuration files are read using the standard
<a class="reference external" href="http://docs.python.org/lib/module-ConfigParser.html">ConfigParser</a> module. The following is a simple example of a configuration
file.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
<strong>[epydoc]</strong> <em># Epydoc section marker (required by ConfigParser)</em>
<em># Information about the project.</em>
<strong>name: My Cool Project</strong>
<strong>url: http://cool.project/</strong>
<em># The list of modules to document. Modules can be named using</em>
<em># dotted names, module filenames, or package directory names.</em>
<em># This option may be repeated.</em>
<strong>modules: sys, os.path, re</strong>
<strong>modules: my/project/driver.py</strong>
<em># Write html output to the directory "apidocs"</em>
<strong>output: html</strong>
<strong>target: apidocs/</strong>
<em># Include all automatically generated graphs. These graphs are</em>
<em># generated using Graphviz dot.</em>
<strong>graph: all</strong>
<strong>dotpath: /usr/local/bin/dot</strong>
</pre>
<p>A <a class="reference internal" href="#sample-configuration-file">more complete example</a>, including all of the supported options, is also
available.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="the-graphical-interface">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id32">2.2 The Graphical Interface</a></h2>
<p>Epydoc also includes a graphical interface, for systems where command line
interfaces are not convenient (such as Windows). The graphical interface can
be invoked with the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydocgui</span></tt> command, or with <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.pyw</span></tt> in the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Scripts</span></tt> subdirectory of the Python installation directory under Windows.
Currently, the graphical interface can only generate HTML output.</p>
<div align="center" class="align-center"><img alt="epydoc_gui.png" class="align-center" src="epydoc_gui.png" /></div>
<p>Use the <strong>Add</strong> box to specify what objects you wish to document. Objects can
be specified using dotted names (such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.path</span></tt>), module filenames (such
as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc/epytext.py</span></tt>), or package directory names (such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc/</span></tt>).
Packages are expanded to include all sub-modules and sub-packages. Once you
have added all of the modules that you wish to document, press the <strong>Start</strong>
button. Epydoc's progress will be displayed on the progress bar.</p>
<p>To customize the output, click on the <strong>Options</strong> arrow at the bottom of the
window. This opens the options pane, which contains fields corresponding to
each command line option.</p>
<div align="center" class="align-center"><img alt="epydoc_guiconfig.png" class="align-center" src="epydoc_guiconfig.png" /></div>
<p>The epydoc graphical interface can save and load <em>project files</em>, which record
the set of modules and the options that you have selected. Select
<strong>File->Save</strong> to save the current modules and options to a project file; and
<strong>File->Open</strong> to open a previously saved project file. (These project files do
not currently use the same format as the configuration files used by the
command line interface.)</p>
<p>For more information, see the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydocgui(1)</span></tt> man page.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="documentation-completeness-checks">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id33">2.3 Documentation Completeness Checks</a></h2>
<p>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc</span></tt> script can be used to check the completeness of the reference
documentation. In particular, it will check that every module, class, method,
and function has a description; that every parameter has a description and a
type; and that every variable has a type. If the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-p</span></tt> option is used, then
these checks are run on both public and private objects; otherwise, the checks
are only run on public objects.</p>
<p><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc</span></tt> <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--check</span></tt> [<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-p</span></tt>] <em>MODULES...</em></p>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><em>MODULES...</em></dt>
<dd>A list of the modules that should be checked. Modules may be specified
using either filenames (such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc/epytext.py</span></tt>) or module names
(such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.path</span></tt>). The filename for a package is its <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__init__.py</span></tt>
file.</dd>
</dl>
<table class="docutils option-list" frame="void" rules="none">
<col class="option" />
<col class="description" />
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="option-group">
<kbd><span class="option">-p</span></kbd></td>
<td>Run documentation completeness checks on private objects.</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>For each object that fails a check, epydoc will print a warning. For example,
some of the warnings generated when checking the completeness of the
documentation for epydoc's private objects are:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
epydoc.html.HTML_Doc._dom_link_to_html........No docs
epydoc.html.HTML_Doc._module..................No type
epydoc.html.HTML_Doc._link_to_html.link.......No descr
epydoc.html.HTML_Doc._author.return...........No type
epydoc.html.HTML_Doc._author.authors..........No descr, No type
epydoc.html.HTML_Doc._author.container........No descr, No type
epydoc.html.HTML_Doc._base_tree.uid...........No descr, No type
epydoc.html.HTML_Doc._base_tree.width.........No descr, No type
epydoc.html.HTML_Doc._base_tree.postfix.......No descr, No type
</pre>
<p>If you'd like more fine-grained control over what gets checked, or you would
like to check other fields (such as the author or version), then you should
use the <a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/api/epydoc.checker.DocChecker-class.html"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">DocChecker</span></tt></a> class directly.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="html-files">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id34">2.4 HTML Files</a></h2>
<p>Every Python module and class is documented in its own file. Index files, tree
files, a help file, and a frames-based table of contents are also created.
The following list describes each of the files generated by epydoc:</p>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">index.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The standard entry point for the documentation. Normally, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">index.html</span></tt>
is a copy of the frames file (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">frames.html</span></tt>). But if the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--no-frames</span></tt>
option is used, then <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">index.html</span></tt> is a copy of the API documentation home
page, which is normally the documentation page for the top-level package or
module (or the trees page if there is no top-level package or module).</dd>
<dt><em>module</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-module.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The API documentation for a module. <em>module</em> is the complete dotted name of
the module, such as <cite>sys</cite> or <cite>epydoc.epytext</cite>.</dd>
<dt><em>class</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-class.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The API documentation for a class, exception, or type. <em>class</em> is the
complete dotted name of the class, such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.epytext.Token</span></tt> or
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">array.ArrayType</span></tt>.</dd>
<dt><em>module</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-pysrc.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>A page with the module colorized source code, with links back to the
objects main documentation pages. The creation of the colorized source
pages can be controlled using the <a class="reference external" href="CommandLineUsage_">options</a> <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--show-sourcecode</span></tt> and
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--no-sourcecode</span></tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">module-tree.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The documented module hierarchy.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">class-tree.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The documented classes hierarchy.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">identifier-index.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The index of all the identifiers found in the documented items.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">term-index.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The index of all the term definition found in the docstrings. Term
definitions are created using the <a class="reference internal" href="#indexed-terms">Indexed Terms</a> markup.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">bug-index.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The index of all the known bug in the documented sources. Bugs are marked
using the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@bug</span></tt> tag.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">todo-index.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The index of all the to-do items in the documented sources. They are
marked using the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@todo</span></tt> tag.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">help.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The help page for the project. This page explains how to use and navigate
the webpage produced by epydoc.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc-log.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>A page with the log of the epydoc execution. It is available clicking on
the timestamp below each page, if the documentation was created using the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--include-log</span></tt> option. The page also contains the list of the options
enabled when the documentation was created.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">api-objects.txt</span></tt></dt>
<dd>A text file containing each available item and the URL where it is
documented. Each item takes a file line and it is separated by the URL by
a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">tab</span></tt> charecter. Such file can be used to create <a class="reference internal" href="#external-api-links">external API links</a>.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">redirect.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>A page containing Javascript code that redirect the browser to the
documentation page indicated by the accessed fragment. For example
opening the page <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">redirect.html#epydoc.apidoc.DottedName</span></tt> the browser
will be redirected to the page <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.apidoc.DottedName-class.html</span></tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">frames.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The main frames file. Two frames on the left side of the window contain a
table of contents, and the main frame on the right side of the window
contains API documentation pages.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">toc.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The top-level table of contents page. This page is displayed in the
upper-left frame of frames.html, and provides links to the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">toc-everything.html</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">toc-module-module.html</span></tt> pages.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">toc-everything.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The table of contents for the entire project. This page is displayed in
the lower-left frame of frames.html, and provides links to every class,
type, exception, function, and variable defined by the project.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">toc-</span></tt><em>module</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-module.html</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The table of contents for a module. This page is displayed in the
lower-left frame of frames.html, and provides links to every class, type,
exception, function, and variable defined by the module. module is the
complete dotted name of the module, such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys</span></tt> or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.epytext</span></tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.css</span></tt></dt>
<dd>The CSS stylesheet used to display all HTML pages.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="css-stylesheets">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id35">2.5 CSS Stylesheets</a></h2>
<p>Epydoc creates a CSS stylesheet (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.css</span></tt>) when it builds the API
documentation for a project. You can specify which stylesheet should be used
using the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--css</span></tt> command-line option. If you do not specify a stylesheet,
and one is already present, epydoc will use that stylesheet; otherwise, it will
use the default stylesheet.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="python-docstrings">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id36">3 Python Docstrings</a></h1>
<!-- $Id: manual-docstring.txt 1575 2007-03-08 21:28:07Z edloper $ -->
<p>Python documentation strings (or <em>docstrings</em>) provide a convenient way of
associating documentation with Python modules, functions, classes, and methods.
An object's docsting is defined by including a string constant as the first
statement in the object's definition. For example, the following function
defines a docstring:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">x_intercept</span>(m, b):
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> Return the x intercept of the line y=m*x+b. The x intercept of a</span>
<span class="py-string"> line is the point at which it crosses the x axis (y=0).</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
return -b/m</pre>
<p>Docstrings can be accessed from the interpreter and from Python programs
using the "<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__doc__</span></tt>" attribute:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-prompt">>>> </span><span class="py-keyword">print</span> x_intercept.__doc__
Return the x intercept of the line y=m*x+b. The x intercept of a
line <span class="py-keyword">is</span> the point at which it crosses the x axis (y=0).</pre>
<p>The <a class="reference external" href="http://web.lfw.org/python/pydoc.html">pydoc</a> module, which became part of <a class="reference external" href="http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-pydoc.html">the standard library</a> in Python 2.1,
can be used to display information about a Python object, including its
docstring:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-prompt">>>> </span><span class="py-keyword">from</span> pydoc <span class="py-keyword">import</span> help
<span class="py-prompt">>>> </span>help(x_intercept)
Help on function x_intercept <span class="py-keyword">in</span> module __main__:
x_intercept(m, b)
Return the x intercept of the line y=m*x+b. The x intercept of a
line <span class="py-keyword">is</span> the point at which it crosses the x axis (y=0).</pre>
<p>For more information about Python docstrings, see the <a class="reference external" href="http://www.python.org/doc/current/tut/node6.html#docstrings">Python Tutorial</a> or
the O'Reilly Network article <a class="reference external" href="http://www.onlamp.com/lpt/a/python/2001/05/17/docstrings.html">Python Documentation Tips and Tricks</a>.</p>
<div class="section" id="variable-docstrings">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id37">3.1 Variable docstrings</a></h2>
<!-- [xx] this should be somewhere else, i guess... -->
<p>Python don't support directly docstrings on variables: there is no attribute
that can be attached to variables and retrieved interactively like the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__doc__</span></tt> attribute on modules, classes and functions.</p>
<p>While the language doesn't directly provides for them, Epydoc supports
<em>variable docstrings</em>: if a variable assignment statement is immediately
followed by a bare string literal, then that assignment is treated as a
docstring for that variable. In classes, variable assignments at the class
definition level are considered class variables; and assignments to instance
variables in the constructor (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__init__</span></tt>) are considered instance variables:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">class</span> <span class="py-defname">A</span>:
x = 22
<span class="py-string">"""Docstring for class variable A.x"""</span>
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">__init__</span>(self, a):
self.y = a
<span class="py-string">""</span>"Docstring <span class="py-keyword">for</span> instance variable A.y</pre>
<p>Variables may also be documented using <em>comment docstrings</em>. If a variable
assignment is immediately preceeded by a comment whose lines begin with the
special marker '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">#:</span></tt>', or is followed on the same line by such a comment,
then it is treated as a docstring for that variable:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-comment">#: docstring for x</span>
x = 22
x = 22 <span class="py-comment">#: docstring for x</span></pre>
<p>Notice that variable docstrings are only available for documentation when the
source code is available for <em>parsing</em>: it is not possible to retrieve variable</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="items-visibility">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id38">3.2 Items visibility</a></h2>
<p>Any Python object (modules, classes, functions, variables...) can be <em>public</em>
or <em>private</em>. Usually the object name decides the object visibility: objects
whose name starts with an underscore and doesn't end with an underscore are
considered private. All the other objects (including the "magic functions" such
as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__add__</span></tt>) are public.</p>
<p>For each module and class, Epydoc generates pages with both public and private
methods. A Javascript snippet allows you to toggle the visibility of private
objects.</p>
<p>If a module wants to hide some of the objects it contains (either defined in
the module itself or imported from other modules), it can explicitly list the
names if its <a class="reference external" href="http://www.python.org/doc/2.4.3/ref/import.html">public names</a> in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__all__</span></tt> variable.</p>
<p>If a module defines the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__all__</span></tt> variable, Epydoc uses its content to decide
if the module objects are public or private.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="the-epytext-markup-language">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id39">4 The Epytext Markup Language</a></h1>
<!-- $Id: manual-epytext.txt 1547 2007-02-21 17:34:54Z dvarrazzo $ -->
<div class="section" id="a-brief-introduction">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id40">4.1 A Brief Introduction</a></h2>
<p>Epytext is a simple lightweight markup language that lets you add formatting
and structue to docstrings. Epydoc uses that formatting and structure to
produce nicely formatted API documentation. The following example (which has
an unusually high ratio of documentaiton to code) illustrates some of the
basic features of epytext:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">x_intercept</span>(m, b):
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> Return the x intercept of the line M{y=m*x+b}. The X{x intercept}</span>
<span class="py-string"> of a line is the point at which it crosses the x axis (M{y=0}).</span>
<span class="py-string"> This function can be used in conjuction with L{z_transform} to</span>
<span class="py-string"> find an arbitrary function's zeros.</span>
<span class="py-string"> @type m: number</span>
<span class="py-string"> @param m: The slope of the line.</span>
<span class="py-string"> @type b: number</span>
<span class="py-string"> @param b: The y intercept of the line. The X{y intercept} of a</span>
<span class="py-string"> line is the point at which it crosses the y axis (M{x=0}).</span>
<span class="py-string"> @rtype: number</span>
<span class="py-string"> @return: the x intercept of the line M{y=m*x+b}.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
return -b/m</pre>
<p>You can compare this function definition with the <a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/examples/epytext_example-module.html#x_intercept">API documentation</a>
generated by epydoc. Note that:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Paragraphs are separated by blank lines.</li>
<li>Inline markup has the form "<em>x</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">{</span></tt>...<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt>", where "<em>x</em>" is a
single capital letter. This example uses inline markup to mark mathematical
expressions ("<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">M{...}</span></tt>"); terms that should be indexed ("<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">X{...}</span></tt>");
and links to the documentation of other objects ("<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">L{...}</span></tt>").</li>
<li>Descriptions of parameters, return values, and types are marked with
"<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@</span></tt><em>field</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:</span></tt>" or "<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@</span></tt><em>field arg</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:</span></tt>", where "<em>field</em>"
identifies the kind of description, and "<em>arg</em>" specifies what object is
described.</li>
</ul>
<p>Epytext is intentionally very lightweight. If you wish to use a more
expressive markup language, I recommend <a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html">reStructuredText</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="epytext-language-overview">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id41">4.2 Epytext Language Overview</a></h2>
<p>Epytext is a lightweight markup language for Python docstrings. The epytext
markup language is used by epydoc to parse docstrings and create structured API
documentation. Epytext markup is broken up into the following categories:</p>
<ul>
<li><p class="first"><strong>Block Structure</strong> divides the docstring into nested blocks of text, such
as <em>paragraphs</em> and <em>lists</em>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>o <strong>Basic Blocks</strong> are the basic unit of block structure.</p>
<p>o <strong>Hierarchical blocks</strong> represent the nesting structure of the docstring.</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><strong>Inline Markup</strong> marks regions of text within a basic block with properties,
such as italics and hyperlinks.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="block-structure">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id42">4.3 Block Structure</a></h2>
<p>Block structure is encoded using indentation, blank lines, and a handful of
special character sequences.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Indentation is used to encode the nesting structure of hierarchical blocks.
The indentation of a line is defined as the number of leading spaces on that
line; and the indentation of a block is typically the indentation of its
first line.</li>
<li>Blank lines are used to separate blocks. A blank line is a line that only
contains whitespace.</li>
<li>Special character sequences are used to mark the beginnings of some blocks.
For example, '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-</span></tt>' is used as a bullet for unordered list items, and
'<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">>>></span></tt>' is used to mark <a class="reference internal" href="#doctest-blocks">doctest blocks</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>The following sections describe how to use each type of block structure.</p>
<div class="section" id="paragraphs">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id43">4.3.1 Paragraphs</a></h3>
<p>A paragraph is the simplest type of basic block. It consists of one or more
lines of text. Paragraphs must be left justified (i.e., every line must have
the same indentation). The following example illustrates how paragraphs can be
used:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> This is a paragraph. Paragraphs can</span>
<span class="py-string"> span multiple lines, and can contain</span>
<span class="py-string"> I{inline markup}.</span>
<span class="py-string"> This is another paragraph. Paragraphs</span>
<span class="py-string"> are separated by blank lines.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
*[...]*</pre>
</td>
<td><p class="first">This is a paragraph. Paragraphs can span multiple lines,
and contain <em>inline markup</em>.</p>
<p class="last">This is another paragraph. Paragraphs are separated from each
other by blank lines.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="lists">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id44">4.3.2 Lists</a></h3>
<p>Epytext supports both ordered and unordered lists. A list consists of one or
more consecutive <em>list items</em> of the same type (ordered or unordered), with the
same indentation. Each list item is marked by a <em>bullet</em>. The bullet for
unordered list items is a single dash character (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-</span></tt>). Bullets for ordered
list items consist of a series of numbers followed by periods, such as
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">12.</span></tt> or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">1.2.8.</span></tt>.</p>
<p>List items typically consist of a bullet followed by a space and a single
paragraph. The paragraph may be indented more than the list item's bullet;
often, the paragraph is intended two or three characters, so that its left
margin lines up with the right side of the bullet. The following example
illustrates a simple ordered list.</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> 1. This is an ordered list item.</span>
<span class="py-string"> 2. This is a another ordered list</span>
<span class="py-string"> item.</span>
<span class="py-string"> 3. This is a third list item. Note that</span>
<span class="py-string"> the paragraph may be indented more</span>
<span class="py-string"> than the bullet.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
*[...]*</pre>
</td>
<td><ol class="first last arabic simple">
<li>This is an ordered list item.</li>
<li>This is another ordered list item.</li>
<li>This is a third list item. Note that the paragraph may be
indented more than the bullet.</li>
</ol>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>List items can contain more than one paragraph; and they can also contain
sublists, <cite>literal blocks</cite>, and <cite>doctest blocks</cite>. All of the blocks contained
by a list item must all have equal indentation, and that indentation must be
greater than or equal to the indentation of the list item's bullet. If the
first contained block is a paragraph, it may appear on the same line as the
bullet, separated from the bullet by one or more spaces, as shown in the
previous example. All other block types must follow on separate lines.</p>
<p>Every list must be separated from surrounding blocks by indentation:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> This is a paragraph.</span>
<span class="py-string"> 1. This is a list item.</span>
<span class="py-string"> 2. This a second list</span>
<span class="py-string"> item.</span>
<span class="py-string"> - This is a sublist</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
[...]</pre>
</td>
<td><p class="first">This is a paragraph.</p>
<ol class="last arabic simple">
<li>This is a list item.</li>
<li>This is a second list item.<ul>
<li>This is a sublist.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Note that sublists must be separated from the blocks in their parent list
item by indentation. In particular, the following docstring generates an error,
since the sublist is not separated from the paragraph in its parent list item
by indentation:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> 1. This is a list item. Its</span>
<span class="py-string"> paragraph is indented 7 spaces.</span>
<span class="py-string"> - This is a sublist. It is</span>
<span class="py-string"> indented 7 spaces.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><strong>L5: Error: Lists must be indented.</strong></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The following example illustrates how lists can be used:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> This is a paragraph.</span>
<span class="py-string"> 1. This is a list item.</span>
<span class="py-string"> - This is a sublist.</span>
<span class="py-string"> - The sublist contains two</span>
<span class="py-string"> items.</span>
<span class="py-string"> - The second item of the</span>
<span class="py-string"> sublist has its own sublist.</span>
<span class="py-string"> 2. This list item contains two</span>
<span class="py-string"> paragraphs and a doctest block.</span>
<span class="py-string"> >>> print 'This is a doctest block'</span>
<span class="py-string"> This is a doctest block</span>
<span class="py-string"> This is the second paragraph.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><p class="first">This is a paragraph.</p>
<ol class="last arabic">
<li><p class="first">This is a list item.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>This is a sublist.</li>
<li>The sublist contains two items.<ul>
<li>The second item of the sublist has its own own sublist.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><p class="first">This list item contains two paragraphs and a doctest block.</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-prompt">>>> </span><span class="py-keyword">print</span> <span class="py-string">'This is a doctest block'</span>
<span class="py-output">This is a doctest block</span></pre>
<p>This is the second paragraph.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Epytext will treat any line that begins with a bullet as a list item. If you
want to include bullet-like text in a paragraph, then you must either ensure
that it is not at the beginning of the line, or use <a class="reference internal" href="#escaping">escaping</a> to prevent
epytext from treating it as markup:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> This sentence ends with the number</span>
<span class="py-string"> 1. Epytext can't tell if the "1."</span>
<span class="py-string"> is a bullet or part of the paragraph,</span>
<span class="py-string"> so it generates an error.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><strong>L4: Error: Lists must be indented.</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> This sentence ends with the number 1.</span>
<span class="py-string"> This sentence ends with the number</span>
<span class="py-string"> E{1}.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><p class="first">This sentence ends with the number 1.</p>
<p class="last">This sentence ends with the number 1.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="sections">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id45">4.3.3 Sections</a></h3>
<p>A section consists of a heading followed by one or more child blocks.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>The heading is a single underlined line of text. Top-level section headings
are underlined with the '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">=</span></tt>' character; subsection headings are
underlined with the '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-</span></tt>' character; and subsubsection headings are
underlined with the '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">~</span></tt>' character. The length of the underline must
exactly match the length of the heading.</li>
<li>The child blocks can be paragraphs, lists, literal blocks, doctest blocks,
or sections. Each child must have equal indentation, and that indentation
must be greater than or equal to the heading's indentation.</li>
</ul>
<p>The following example illustrates how sections can be used:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> This paragraph is not in any section.</span>
<span class="py-string"> Section 1</span>
<span class="py-string"> =========</span>
<span class="py-string"> This is a paragraph in section 1.</span>
<span class="py-string"> Section 1.1</span>
<span class="py-string"> -----------</span>
<span class="py-string"> This is a paragraph in section 1.1.</span>
<span class="py-string"> Section 2</span>
<span class="py-string"> =========</span>
<span class="py-string"> This is a paragraph in section 2.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><p class="h1 first">Section 1</p>
<p>This is a paragraph in section 1.</p>
<p class="h2">Section 1.1</p>
<p>This is a paragraph in section 1.1.</p>
<p class="h1">Section 2</p>
<p class="last">This is a paragraph in section 2.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="literal-blocks">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id46">4.3.4 Literal Blocks</a></h3>
<p>Literal blocks are used to represent "preformatted" text. Everything within a
literal block should be displayed exactly as it appears in plaintext. In
particular:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Spaces and newlines are preserved.</li>
<li>Text is shown in a monospaced font.</li>
<li>Inline markup is not detected.</li>
</ul>
<p>Literal blocks are introduced by paragraphs ending in the special sequence
"<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">::</span></tt>". Literal blocks end at the first line whose indentation is equal to
or less than that of the paragraph that introduces them. The following example
shows how literal blocks can be used:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> The following is a literal block::</span>
<span class="py-string"> Literal /</span>
<span class="py-string"> / Block</span>
<span class="py-string"> This is a paragraph following the</span>
<span class="py-string"> literal block.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><p class="first">The following is a literal block:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
Literal /
/ Block
</pre>
<p class="last">This is a paragraph following the literal block.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Literal blocks are indented relative to the paragraphs that introduce them;
for example, in the previous example, the word "Literal" is displayed with four
leading spaces, not eight. Also, note that the double colon ("<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">::</span></tt>") that
introduces the literal block is rendered as a single colon.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="doctest-blocks">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id47">4.3.5 Doctest Blocks</a></h3>
<p>Doctest blocks contain examples consisting of Python expressions and their
output. Doctest blocks can be used by the doctest module to test the
documented object. Doctest blocks begin with the special sequence
"<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">>>></span></tt>". Doctest blocks are delimited from surrounding blocks by blank lines.
Doctest blocks may not contain blank lines. The following example shows how
doctest blocks can be used:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> The following is a doctest block:</span>
<span class="py-string"> >>> print (1+3,</span>
<span class="py-more"> </span><span class="py-string"> ... 3+5)</span>
<span class="py-string"> (4, 8)</span>
<span class="py-string"> >>> 'a-b-c-d-e'.split('-')</span>
<span class="py-string"> ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']</span>
<span class="py-string"> This is a paragraph following the</span>
<span class="py-string"> doctest block.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><p class="first">The following is a doctest block:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-prompt">>>> </span><span class="py-keyword">print</span> (1+3,
<span class="py-more">... </span> 3+5)
<span class="py-output">(4, 8)</span>
<span class="py-output"></span><span class="py-prompt">>>> </span><span class="py-string">'a-b-c-d-e'</span>.split(<span class="py-string">'-'</span>)
<span class="py-output">['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']</span></pre>
<p class="last">This is a paragraph following the doctest block.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="fields">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id48">4.3.6 Fields</a></h3>
<p>Fields are used to describe specific properties of a documented object. For
example, fields can be used to define the parameters and return value of a
function; the instance variables of a class; and the author of a module. Each
field is marked by a <em>field tag</em>, which consist of an at sign ('<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@</span></tt>')
followed by a <em>field name</em>, optionally followed by a space and a <em>field
argument</em>, followed by a colon ('<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:</span></tt>'). For example, '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@return:</span></tt>' and
'<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@param</span> <span class="pre">x:</span></tt>' are field tags.</p>
<p>Fields can contain paragraphs, lists, literal blocks, and doctest blocks.
All of the blocks contained by a field must all have equal indentation, and
that indentation must be greater than or equal to the indentation of the
field's tag. If the first contained block is a paragraph, it may appear on the
same line as the field tag, separated from the field tag by one or more spaces.
All other block types must follow on separate lines.</p>
<p>Fields must be placed at the end of the docstring, after the description of
the object. Fields may be included in any order.</p>
<p>Fields do not need to be separated from other blocks by a blank line. Any line
that begins with a field tag followed by a space or newline is considered a
field.</p>
<p>The following example illustrates how fields can be used:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> @param x: This is a description of</span>
<span class="py-string"> the parameter x to a function.</span>
<span class="py-string"> Note that the description is</span>
<span class="py-string"> indented four spaces.</span>
<span class="py-string"> @type x: This is a description of</span>
<span class="py-string"> x's type.</span>
<span class="py-string"> @return: This is a description of</span>
<span class="py-string"> the function's return value.</span>
<span class="py-string"> It contains two paragraphs.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><dl class="first last docutils">
<dt><strong>Parameters:</strong></dt>
<dd><p class="first"><strong>x</strong> - This is a description of the parameter x to a function.
Note that the description is indented four spaces.</p>
<blockquote class="last">
<em>(type=This is a description of x's type.)</em></blockquote>
</dd>
<dt><strong>Returns:</strong></dt>
<dd><p class="first">This is a description of the function's return value.</p>
<p class="last">It contains two paragraphs.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>For a list of the fields that are supported by epydoc, see the <cite>epydoc fields</cite>
chapter.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="inline-markup">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id49">4.4 Inline Markup</a></h2>
<p>Inline markup has the form '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">x{...}</span></tt>', where <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">x</span></tt> is a single capital letter
that specifies how the text between the braces should be rendered. Inline
markup is recognized within paragraphs and section headings. It is <em>not</em>
recognized within literal and doctest blocks. Inline markup can contain
multiple words, and can span multiple lines. Inline markup may be nested.</p>
<p>A matching pair of curly braces is only interpreted as inline markup if the
left brace is immediately preceeded by a capital letter. So in most cases, you
can use curly braces in your text without any form of escaping. However, you do
need to escape curly braces when:</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li>You want to include a single (un-matched) curly brace.</li>
<li>You want to preceed a matched pair of curly braces with a capital letter.</li>
</ol>
<p>Note that there is no valid Python expression where a pair of matched curly
braces is immediately preceeded by a capital letter (except within string
literals). In particular, you never need to escape braces when writing Python
dictionaries. See also <a class="reference internal" href="#escaping">escaping</a>.</p>
<div class="section" id="basic-inline-markup">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id50">4.4.1 Basic Inline Markup</a></h3>
<blockquote>
Epytext defines four types of inline markup that specify how text should be
displayed:</blockquote>
<ul class="simple">
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">I{...}</span></tt>: Italicized text.</li>
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">B{...}</span></tt>: Bold-faced text.</li>
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">C{...}</span></tt>: Source code or a Python identifier.</li>
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">M{...}</span></tt>: A mathematical expression.</li>
</ul>
<p>By default, source code is rendered in a fixed width font; and mathematical
expressions are rendered in italics. But those defaults may be changed by
modifying the CSS stylesheet. The following example illustrates how the four
basic markup types can be used:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> I{B{Inline markup} may be nested; and</span>
<span class="py-string"> it may span} multiple lines.</span>
<span class="py-string"> - I{Italicized text}</span>
<span class="py-string"> - B{Bold-faced text}</span>
<span class="py-string"> - C{Source code}</span>
<span class="py-string"> - M{Math}</span>
<span class="py-string"> Without the capital letter, matching</span>
<span class="py-string"> braces are not interpreted as markup:</span>
<span class="py-string"> C{my_dict={1:2, 3:4}}.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><p class="first"><strong>Inline markup</strong> <em>may be nested</em>; and it may span multiple lines.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><em>Italicized text</em></li>
<li><strong>Bold-faced text</strong></li>
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Source</span> <span class="pre">code</span></tt></li>
<li>Math: <em>m*x+b</em></li>
</ul>
<p class="last">Without the capital letter, matching braces are not interpreted as
markup: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">my_dict={1:2,</span> <span class="pre">3:4}</span></tt>.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="urls">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id51">4.4.2 URLs</a></h3>
<p>The inline markup construct <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">U{</span></tt><em>text<url></em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt> is used to create links
to external URLs and URIs. '<em>text</em>' is the text that should be displayed for
the link, and '<em>url</em>' is the target of the link. If you wish to use the URL as
the text for the link, you can simply write "<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">U{</span></tt><em>url</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt>". Whitespace
within URL targets is ignored. In particular, URL targets may be split over
multiple lines. The following example illustrates how URLs can be used:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> - U{www.python.org}</span>
<span class="py-string"> - U{http://www.python.org}</span>
<span class="py-string"> - U{The epydoc homepage<http://</span>
<span class="py-string"> epydoc.sourceforge.net>}</span>
<span class="py-string"> - U{The B{Python} homepage</span>
<span class="py-string"> <www.python.org>}</span>
<span class="py-string"> - U{Edward Loper<mailto:edloper@</span>
<span class="py-string"> gradient.cis.upenn.edu>}</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><ul class="first last simple">
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://www.python.org">www.python.org</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://www.python.org">http://www.python.org</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.sourceforge.net">The epydoc homepage</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://www.python.org">The <strong>Python</strong> homepage</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="mailto:edloper@gradient.cis.upenn.edu">Edward Loper</a></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="documentation-crossreference-links">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id52">4.4.3 Documentation Crossreference Links</a></h3>
<p>The inline markup construct '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">L{</span></tt><em>text<object></em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt>' is used to create
links to the documentation for other Python objects. '<em>text</em>' is the text that
should be displayed for the link, and '<em>object</em>' is the name of the Python
object that should be linked to. If you wish to use the name of the Python
object as the text for the link, you can simply write <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">L{</span></tt><em>object</em>}``.
Whitespace within object names is ignored. In particular, object names may be
split over multiple lines. The following example illustrates how documentation
crossreference links can be used:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> - L{x_transform}</span>
<span class="py-string"> - L{search<re.search>}</span>
<span class="py-string"> - L{The I{x-transform} function</span>
<span class="py-string"> <x_transform>}</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><ul class="first last simple">
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://www.example.com">x_transform</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://www.example.com">search</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://www.example.com">The x-transform function</a></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>In order to find the object that corresponds to a given name, epydoc checks the
following locations, in order:</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li>If the link is made from a class or method docstring, then epydoc checks for
a method, instance variable, or class variable with the given name.</li>
<li>Next, epydoc looks for an object with the given name in the current module.</li>
<li>Epydoc then tries to import the given name as a module. If the current
module is contained in a package, then epydoc will also try importing the
given name from all packages containing the current module.</li>
<li>Epydoc then tries to divide the given name into a module name and an
object name, and to import the object from the module. If the current module
is contained in a package, then epydoc will also try importing the module
name from all packages containing the current module.</li>
<li>Finally, epydoc looks for a class name in any module with the given name.
This is only returned if there is a single class with such name.</li>
</ol>
<p>If no object is found that corresponds with the given name, then epydoc
issues a warning.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="indexed-terms">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id53">4.4.4 Indexed Terms</a></h3>
<p>Epydoc automatically creates an index of term definitions for the API
documentation. The inline markup construct '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">X{...}</span></tt>' is used to mark terms
for inclusion in the index. The term itself will be italicized; and a link will
be created from the index page to the location of the term in the text. The
following example illustrates how index terms can be used:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> An X{index term} is a term that</span>
<span class="py-string"> should be included in the index.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><p class="first">An <em>index term</em> is a term that should be included in the index.</p>
<blockquote class="last">
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="46%" />
<col width="54%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head" colspan="2">Index</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td>index term</td>
<td><em>example</em></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>x intercept</td>
<td><em>x_intercept</em></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>y intercept</td>
<td><em>x_intercept</em></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</blockquote>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="symbols">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id54">4.4.5 Symbols</a></h3>
<p>Symbols are used to insert special characters in your documentation. A symbol
has the form '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">S{code}</span></tt>', where code is a symbol code that specifies what
character should be produced. The following example illustrates how symbols can
be used to generate special characters:</p>
<!-- This data file has been placed in the public domain. -->
<!-- Derived from the Unicode character mappings available from
<http://www.w3.org/2003/entities/xml/>.
Processed by unicode2rstsubs.py, part of Docutils:
<http://docutils.sourceforge.net>. -->
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> Symbols can be used in equations:</span>
<span class="py-string"> - S{sum}S{alpha}/x S{<=} S{beta}</span>
<span class="py-string"> S{<-} and S{larr} both give left</span>
<span class="py-string"> arrows. Some other arrows are</span>
<span class="py-string"> S{rarr}, S{uarr}, and S{darr}.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><p class="first">Symbols can be used in equations:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>∑ α/<em>x</em> ≤ β</li>
</ul>
<p class="last">← and ← both give left
arrows. Some other arrows are
→, ↑, and ↓.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Although symbols can be quite useful, you should keep in mind that they can
make it harder to read your docstring in plaintext. In general, symbols should
be used sparingly. For a complete list of the symbols that are currently
supported, see the reference documentation for <a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/api/epydoc.markup.epytext-module.html#SYMBOLS"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epytext.SYMBOLS</span></tt></a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="escaping">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id55">4.4.6 Escaping</a></h3>
<p>Escaping is used to write text that would otherwise be interpreted as epytext
markup. Epytext was carefully constructed to minimize the need for this type
of escaping; but sometimes, it is unavoidable. Escaped text has the form
'<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">E{</span></tt><em>code</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt>', where code is an escape code that specifies what
character should be produced. If the escape code is a single character (other
than '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">{</span></tt>' or '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt>'), then that character is produced. For example, to
begin a paragraph with a dash (which would normally signal a list item), write
'<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">E{-}</span></tt>'. In addition, two special escape codes are defined: '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">E{lb}</span></tt>'
produces a left curly brace ('<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">{</span></tt>'); and '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">E{rb}</span></tt>' produces a right curly
brace ('<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt>'). The following example illustrates how escaping can be used:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> This paragraph ends with two</span>
<span class="py-string"> colons, but does not introduce</span>
<span class="py-string"> a literal blockE{:}E{:}</span>
<span class="py-string"> E{-} This is not a list item.</span>
<span class="py-string"> Escapes can be used to write</span>
<span class="py-string"> unmatched curly braces:</span>
<span class="py-string"> E{rb}E{lb}</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><p class="first">This paragraph ends with two colons, but does not introduce a literal
block::</p>
<p>- This is not a list item.</p>
<p class="last">Escapes can be used to write unmatched curly braces: }{</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="graphs">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id56">4.4.7 Graphs</a></h3>
<p>The inline markup construct '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">G{</span></tt><em>graphtype args...</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt>' is used to
insert automatically generated graphs. The following graphs generation
constructions are currently defines:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Markup</th>
<th class="head">Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">G{classtree</span></tt> <em>classes...</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt></td>
<td>Display a class hierarchy for the given
class or classes (including all
superclasses & subclasses). If no class
is specified, and the directive is used
in a class's docstring, then that
class's class hierarchy will be
displayed.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">G{packagetree</span></tt> <em>modules...</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt></td>
<td>Display a package hierarchy for the
given module or modules (including all
subpackages and submodules). If no
module is specified, and the directive
is used in a module's docstring, then
that module's package hierarchy will be
displayed.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">G{importgraph</span></tt> <em>modules...</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt></td>
<td>Display an import graph for the given
module or modules. If no module is
specified, and the directive is used in
a module's docstring, then that
module's import graph will be
displayed.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">G{callgraph</span></tt> <em>functions...</em><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt></td>
<td>Display a call graph for the given
function or functions. If no function
is specified, and the directive is used
in a function's docstring, then that
function's call graph will be
displayed.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="characters">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id57">4.5 Characters</a></h2>
<div class="section" id="valid-characters">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id58">4.5.1 Valid Characters</a></h3>
<p>Valid characters for an epytext docstring are space (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\040</span></tt>); newline
(<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\012</span></tt>); and any letter, digit, or punctuation, as defined by the current
locale. Control characters (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\000</span></tt>-<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\010`</span> <span class="pre">and</span> <span class="pre">``\013</span></tt>-<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\037</span></tt>) are not
valid content characters. Tabs (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\011</span></tt>) are expanded to spaces, using the
same algorithm used by the Python parser. Carridge-return/newline pairs
(<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\015\012</span></tt>) are converted to newlines.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="content-characters">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id59">4.5.2 Content Characters</a></h3>
<p>Characters in a docstring that are not involved in markup are called <em>content characters</em>. Content characters are always displayed as-is. In particular, HTML
codes are not passed through. For example, consider the following example:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> <B>test</B></span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><B>test</B></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The docstring is rendered as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre"><B>test</B></span></tt>, and not as the word "test" in
bold face.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="spaces-and-newlines">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id60">4.5.3 Spaces and Newlines</a></h3>
<p>In general, spaces and newlines within docstrings are treated as soft spaces.
In other words, sequences of spaces and newlines (that do not contain a blank
line) are rendered as a single space, and words may wrapped at spaces. However,
within literal blocks and doctest blocks, spaces and newlines are preserved,
and no word-wrapping occurs; and within URL targets and documentation link
targets, whitespace is ignored.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="epydoc-fields">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id61">5 Epydoc Fields</a></h1>
<!-- $Id: manual-fields.txt 1554 2007-02-27 03:31:56Z edloper $ -->
<p>Fields are used to describe specific properties of a documented object. For
example, fields can be used to define the parameters and return value of a
function; the instance variables of a class; and the author of a module. Each
field consists of a <em>tag</em>, an optional <em>argument</em>, and a <em>body</em>.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>The <em>tag</em> is a case-insensitive word that indicates what kind of
documentation is given by the field.</li>
<li>The optional <em>argument</em> specifies what object, parameter, or group is
documented by the field.</li>
<li>The <em>body</em> contains the main contents of the field.</li>
</ul>
<div class="section" id="field-markup">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id62">5.1 Field Markup</a></h2>
<p>Each docstring markup langauge marks fields differently. The following table
shows the basic fields syntax for each markup language. For more information,
see the definition of field syntax for each markup language.</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="33%" />
<col width="33%" />
<col width="33%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Epytext</th>
<th class="head">reStructuredText</th>
<th class="head">Javadoc</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="first last literal-block">
@<em>tag</em>: <em>body</em>...
@<em>tag</em> <em>arg</em>: <em>body</em>...
</pre>
</td>
<td><pre class="first last literal-block">
:<em>tag</em>: <em>body</em>...
:<em>tag</em> <em>arg</em>: <em>body</em>...
</pre>
</td>
<td><pre class="first last literal-block">
@<em>tag</em> <em>body</em>...
@<em>tag</em> <em>arg</em> <em>body</em>...
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><a class="reference internal" href="#fields">Definition of epytext fields</a></td>
<td><a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/spec/rst/reStructuredText.html#field-lists">Definition of ReStructuredText fields</a></td>
<td><a class="reference external" href="http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/tooldocs/solaris/javadoc.html#javadoctags">Definition of Javadoc fields</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="supported-fields">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id63">5.2 Supported Fields</a></h2>
<p>The following table lists the fields that epydoc currently recognizes. Field
tags are written using epytext markup; if you are using a different markup
language, then you should adjust the markup accordingly.</p>
<div class="section" id="functions-and-methods-parameters">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id64">5.2.1 Functions and Methods parameters</a></h3>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@param</span></tt> <em>p</em>: ...</dt>
<dd>A description of the parameter <em>p</em> for a function or method.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@type</span></tt> <em>p</em>: ...</dt>
<dd>The expected type for the parameter <em>p</em>.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@return</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>The return value for a function or method.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@rtype</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>The type of the return value for a function or method.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@keyword</span></tt> <em>p</em>: ...</dt>
<dd>A description of the keyword parameter <em>p</em>.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@raise</span></tt> <em>e</em>: ...</dt>
<dd>A description of the circumstances under which a function or method
raises exception <em>e</em>.</dd>
</dl>
<p>These tags can be used to specify attributes of parameters and return value
of function and methods. These tags are usually put in the the docstring of the
function to be documented.</p>
<div class="note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p><strong>constructor parameters</strong></p>
<p class="last">In C extension modules, extension classes cannot have a docstring attached
to the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__init__</span></tt> function; consequently it is not possible to document
parameters and exceptions raised by the class constructor. To overcome this
shortcoming, the tags <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@param</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@keyword</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@type</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@exception</span></tt>
are also allowed to appear in the class docstring. In this case they refer
to constructor parameters.</p>
</div>
<p><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@param</span></tt> fields should be used to document any explicit parameter
(including the keyword parameter). <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@keyword</span></tt> fields should only be used
for non-explicit keyword parameters:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">plant</span>(seed, *tools, **options):
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> @param seed: The seed that should be planted.</span>
<span class="py-string"> @param tools: Tools that should be used to plant the seed.</span>
<span class="py-string"> @param options: Any extra options for the planting.</span>
<span class="py-string"> @keyword dig_deep: Plant the seed deep under ground.</span>
<span class="py-string"> @keyword soak: Soak the seed before planting it.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
<p>Since the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@type</span></tt> field allows for arbitrary text, it does not
automatically create a crossreference link to the specified type, and is
not written in fixed-width font by default. If you want to create a
crossreference link to the type, or to write the type in a fixed-width
font, then you must use inline markup:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">ponder</span>(person, time):
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> @param person: Who should think.</span>
<span class="py-string"> @type person: L{Person} or L{Animal}</span>
<span class="py-string"> @param time: How long they should think.</span>
<span class="py-string"> @type time: C{int} or C{float}</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</div>
<div class="section" id="variables-parameters">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id65">5.2.2 Variables parameters</a></h3>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@ivar</span></tt> <em>v</em>: ...</dt>
<dd>A description of the class instance variable <em>v</em>.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@cvar</span></tt> <em>v</em>: ...</dt>
<dd>A description of the static class variable <em>v</em>.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@var</span></tt> <em>v</em>: ...</dt>
<dd>A description of the module variable <em>v</em>.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@type</span></tt> <em>v</em>: ...</dt>
<dd>The type of the variable <em>v</em>.</dd>
</dl>
<p>These tags are usually put in a module or class docstring. If the sources can
be parsed by Epydoc it is also possible to document the variable in their own
docstrings: see <a class="reference internal" href="#variable-docstrings">variable docstrings</a></p>
<p>Epydoc considers class variables the ones defined directly defined in the
class body. A common Python idiom is to create instance variables settings
their default value in the class instead of the constructor (hopefully if the
default is immutable...).</p>
<p>If you want to force Epydoc to classify as instance variable one whose default
value is set at class level, you can describe it using the tag <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@ivar</span></tt> in the
context of a variable docstring:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">class</span> <span class="py-defname">B</span>:
y = 42
<span class="py-string">"""@ivar: This is an instance variable."""</span></pre>
</div>
<div class="section" id="properties-parameters">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id66">5.2.3 Properties parameters</a></h3>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@type</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>The type of the property.</dd>
</dl>
<p>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@type</span></tt> tag can be attached toa property docstring to specify its type.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="grouping-and-sorting">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id67">5.2.4 Grouping and Sorting</a></h3>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@group</span></tt> <em>g</em>: <em>c1,...,cn</em></dt>
<dd>Organizes a set of related children of a module or class into a group.
<em>g</em> is the name of the group; and <em>c1,...,cn</em> are the names of the
children in the group. To define multiple groups, use multiple group
fields.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@sort</span></tt>: <em>c1,...,cn</em></dt>
<dd>Specifies the sort order for the children of a module or class.
<em>c1,...,cn</em> are the names of the children, in the order in which they
should appear. Any children that are not included in this list will
appear after the children from this list, in alphabetical order.</dd>
</dl>
<p>These tags can be used to present groups of related items in a logical way.
They apply to modules and classes docstrings.</p>
<p>For the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@group</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@sort</span></tt> tags, asterisks (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">*</span></tt>) can be used to
specify multiple children at once. An asterisk in a child name will match
any substring:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">class</span> <span class="py-defname">widget</span>(size, weight, age):
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> @group Tools: zip, zap, *_tool</span>
<span class="py-string"> @group Accessors: get_*</span>
<span class="py-string"> @sort: get_*, set_*, unpack_*, cut</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
<div class="note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p><strong>group markers</strong></p>
<p>It is also possible to group set of related items enclosing them
into special comment starting with the <em>group markers</em> '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">#{</span></tt>' and '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">#}</span></tt>'
The group title can be specified after the opening group marker. Example:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-comment">#{ Database access functions</span>
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">read</span>(id):
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span>
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">store</span>(item):
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span>
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">delete</span>(id):
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span>
<span class="py-comment"># groups can't be nested, so a closing marker is not required here.</span>
<span class="py-comment">#{ Web publish functions</span>
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">get</span>(request):
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span>
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">post</span>(request):
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span>
<span class="py-comment">#}</span></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="notes-and-warnings">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id68">5.2.5 Notes and Warnings</a></h3>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@note</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>A note about an object. Multiple note fields may be used to list
separate notes.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@attention</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>An important note about an object. Multiple attention fields may be
used to list separate notes.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@bug</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd><p class="first">A description of a bug in an object. Multiple bug fields may be used to
report separate bugs.</p>
<div class="note last">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">If any <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@bug</span></tt> field is used, the HTML writer will generate a the page
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">bug-index.html</span></tt>, containing links to all the items tagged with
the field.</p>
</div>
</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@warning</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>A warning about an object. Multiple warning fields may be used to
report separate warnings.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="status">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id69">5.2.6 Status</a></h3>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@version</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>The current version of an object.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@todo</span></tt> [<em>ver</em>]: ...</dt>
<dd><p class="first">A planned change to an object. If the optional argument ver is given,
then it specifies the version for which the change will be made.
Multiple todo fields may be used if multiple changes are planned.</p>
<div class="note last">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">If any <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@todo</span></tt> field is used, the HTML writer will generate a the
page <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">todo-index.html</span></tt>, containing links to all the items tagged
with the field.</p>
</div>
</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@deprecated</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>Indicates that an object is deprecated. The body of the field describe
the reason why the object is deprecated.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@since</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>The date or version when an object was first introduced.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@status</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>The current status of an object.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@change</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>A change log entry for this object.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@permission</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>The object access permission, for systems such Zope/Plone supporting
this concept. It may be used more than once to specify multiple
permissions.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="formal-conditions">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id70">5.2.7 Formal Conditions</a></h3>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@requires</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>A requirement for using an object. Multiple requires fields may be
used if an object has multiple requirements.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@precondition</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>A condition that must be true before an object is used. Multiple
precondition fields may be used if an object has multiple preconditions.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@postcondition</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>A condition that is guaranteed to be true after an object is used.
Multiple postcondition fields may be used if an object has multiple
postconditions.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@invariant</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>A condition which should always be true for an object. Multiple
invariant fields may be used if an object has multiple invariants.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="bibliographic-information">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id71">5.2.8 Bibliographic Information</a></h3>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@author</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>The author(s) of an object. Multiple author fields may be used if an
object has multiple authors.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@organization</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>The organization that created or maintains an object.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@copyright</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>The copyright information for an object.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@license</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>The licensing information for an object.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@contact</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>Contact information for the author or maintainer of a module, class,
function, or method. Multiple contact fields may be used if an object
has multiple contacts.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="other-fields">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id72">5.2.9 Other fields</a></h3>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@summary</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>A summary description for an object. This description overrides the
default summary (which is constructed from the first sentence of the
object's description).</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@see</span></tt>: ...</dt>
<dd>A description of a related topic. see fields typically use
documentation crossreference links or external hyperlinks that link to
the related topic.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="fields-synonyms">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id73">5.3 Fields synonyms</a></h2>
<p>Several fields have <em>synonyms</em>, or alternate tags. The following table lists
all field synonyms. Field tags are written using epytext markup; if you are
using a different markup language, then you should adjust the markup
accordingly.</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Name</th>
<th class="head">Synonims</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@param</span></tt> <em>p</em>: ...</td>
<td><div class="first last line-block">
<div class="line"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@parameter</span></tt> <em>p</em>: ...</div>
<div class="line"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@arg</span></tt> <em>p</em>: ...</div>
<div class="line"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@argument</span></tt> <em>p</em>: ...</div>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@return</span></tt>: ...</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@returns</span></tt>: ...</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@rtype</span></tt>: ...</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@returntype</span></tt>: ...</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@raise</span></tt> <em>e</em>: ...</td>
<td><div class="first last line-block">
<div class="line"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@raises</span></tt> <em>e</em>: ...</div>
<div class="line"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@except</span></tt> <em>e</em>: ...</div>
<div class="line"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@exception</span></tt> <em>e</em>: ...</div>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@keyword</span></tt> <em>p</em>: ...</td>
<td><div class="first last line-block">
<div class="line"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@kwarg</span></tt> <em>p</em>: ...</div>
<div class="line"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@kwparam</span></tt> <em>p</em>: ...</div>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@ivar</span></tt> <em>v</em>: ...</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@ivariable</span></tt> <em>v</em>: ...</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@cvar</span></tt> <em>v</em>: ...</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@cvariable</span></tt> <em>v</em>: ...</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@var</span></tt> <em>v</em>: ...</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@variable</span></tt> <em>v</em>: ...</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@see</span></tt>: ...</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@seealso</span></tt>: ...</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@warning</span></tt>: ...</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@warn</span></tt>: ...</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@requires</span></tt>: ...</td>
<td><div class="first last line-block">
<div class="line"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@require</span></tt>: ...</div>
<div class="line"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@requirement</span></tt>: ...</div>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@precondition</span></tt>: ...</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@precond</span></tt>: ...</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@postcondition</span></tt>: ...</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@postcond</span></tt>: ...</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@organization</span></tt>: ...</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@org</span></tt>: ...</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@copyright</span></tt>: ...</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@(c)</span></tt>: ...</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@change</span></tt>: ...</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@changed</span></tt>: ...</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="module-metadata-variables">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id74">5.4 Module metadata variables</a></h2>
<p>Some module variables are commonly used as module metadata. Epydoc can use the
value provided by these variables as alternate form for tags. The following
table lists the recognized variables and the tag they replace. Customized
metadata variables can be added using the method described in <a class="reference internal" href="#adding-new-fields">Adding New
Fields</a>.</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Tag</th>
<th class="head">Variable</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@author</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__author__</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@authors</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__authors__</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@contact</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__contact__</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@copyright</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__copyright__</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@license</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__license__</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@deprecated</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__deprecated__</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@date</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__date__</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@version</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__version__</span></tt></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="adding-new-fields">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id75">5.5 Adding New Fields</a></h2>
<p>New fields can be defined for the docstrings in a module using the special
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@newfield</span></tt> tag (or its synonym, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@deffield</span></tt>). This tag has the following
syntax:</p>
<blockquote>
<pre class="literal-block">
@newfield <em>tag</em>: <em>label</em> [, <em>plural</em> ]
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>Where <em>tag</em> is the new tag that's being defined; <em>label</em> is a string that will
be used to mark this field in the generated output; and plural is the plural form
of label, if different.</p>
<p>New fields can be defined in any Python module. If they are defined in a
package, it will be possible to use the newly defined tag from every package
submodule.</p>
<p>Each new field will also define a <a class="reference internal" href="#module-metadata-variables">metadata variable</a> which can be used
to set the field value instead of the tag. For example, if a <em>revision</em>
tag has been defined with:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
@newfield revision: Revision
</pre>
<p>then it will be possible to set a value for the field using a module variable:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
__revision__ = <span class="py-string">"1234"</span></pre>
<p>The following example illustrates how the @newfield can be used:
Docstring Input Rendered Output</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string">@newfield corpus: Corpus, Corpora</span>
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> @corpus: Bob's wordlist.</span>
<span class="py-string"> @corpus: The British National Corpus.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
[...]</pre>
</td>
<td><p class="first"><strong>Corpora:</strong></p>
<ul class="last simple">
<li>Bob's wordlist.</li>
<li>The British National Corpus.</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div class="note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">The module-level variable <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__extra_epydoc_fields__</span></tt> is deprecated;
use <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@newfield</span></tt> instead.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="alternate-markup-languages">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id76">6 Alternate Markup Languages</a></h1>
<!-- $Id: manual-othermarkup.txt 1598 2007-09-06 13:02:50Z dvarrazzo $ -->
<p>Epydoc's default markup language is <a class="reference internal" href="#the-epytext-markup-language">epytext</a>, a lightweight markup language
that's easy to write and to understand. But if epytext is not powerful enough
for you, or doesn't suit your needs, epydoc also supports three alternate
markup languages:</p>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html">reStructuredText</a></dt>
<dd>is an "easy-to-read, what-you-see-is-what-you-get plaintext markup syntax".
It is more powerful than epytext (e.g., it includes markup for tables and
footnotes); but it is also more complex, and sometimes harder to read.</dd>
<dt><a class="reference external" href="http://java.sun.com/j2se/javadoc/">Javadoc</a></dt>
<dd>is a documentation markup language that was developed for Java. It consists
of HTML, augmented by a set of special tagged fields.</dd>
<dt>Plaintext docstrings</dt>
<dd>are rendered verbatim (preserving whitespace).</dd>
</dl>
<p>To specify the markup language for a module, you should define a module-level
string variable <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__docformat__</span></tt>, containing the name of the module's markup
language. The name of the markup language may optionally be followed by a
language code (such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">en</span></tt> for English). Conventionally, the definition of
the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">__docformat__</span></tt> variable immediately follows the module's docstring:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-comment"># widget.py</span>
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string">Graphical support for `gizmos` and `widgets`.</span>
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
__docformat__ = <span class="py-string">"restructuredtext en"</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
<p>To change the default markup language from the command line, use the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--docformat</span></tt> option. For example, the following command generates API
documentation for the existing regular expression package <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">re</span></tt>, which uses
plaintext markup:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
[epydoc]$ epydoc --docformat plaintext re
</pre>
<div class="section" id="id13">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id77">6.1 reStructuredText</a></h2>
<p>reStructuredText is a markup language that was developed in conjunction with
<a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/">Docutils</a>. In order to parse reStructuredText docstrings, Docutils 0.3 or
higher must be installed. If Docutils is not installed, then reStructuredText
docstrings will be rendered as plaintext. Docutils can be downloaded from the
<a class="reference external" href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=38414">Docutils SourceForge page</a>.</p>
<div class="section" id="default-role">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id78">6.1.1 Default role</a></h3>
<p>Epydoc replaces the Docutils' default <a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/roles.html">interpreted text role</a> with
the creation of <a class="reference internal" href="#documentation-crossreference-links">documentation crossreference links</a>. If you want to create
a crossreference link to the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">somemod.Example</span></tt> class, you can put backquotes
around your test, typing:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
`somemod.Example`
</pre>
</div>
<div class="section" id="consolidated-fields">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id79">6.1.2 Consolidated Fields</a></h3>
<p>In addition to the <a class="reference internal" href="#epydoc-fields">standard set of fields</a>, the reStructruedText parser also
supports <em>consolidated fields</em>, which combine the documentation for several
objects into a single field. For example, a single <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:Parameters:</span></tt> field is
often used to describe all of the parameters for a function or method:</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">fox_speed</span>(size, weight, age):
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> Return the maximum speed for a fox.</span>
<span class="py-string"> :Parameters:</span>
<span class="py-string"> - `size`: The size of the fox (in meters)</span>
<span class="py-string"> - `weight`: The weight of the fox (in stones)</span>
<span class="py-string"> - `age`: The age of the fox (in years)</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
<p>Epydoc will automatically extract information about each parameter from this
list. These <em>consolidated fields</em> may be written using either a <a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/user/rst/quickref.html#bullet-lists">bulleted
list</a> or a <a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/user/rst/quickref.html#definition-lists">definition list</a>.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>If a consolidated field is written as a <em>bulleted list</em>, then each list item
must begin with the field's argument, marked as <a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/user/rst/quickref.html#inline-markup">interpreted text</a>, and
followed by a colon or dash.</li>
<li>If a consolidated field is written as a <em>definition list</em>, then each
definition item's term should contain the field's argument, (it is not
mandatory for it being marked as interpreted text).</li>
</ul>
<p>The term classifier, if present, is used to specify the associated type. The
following example shows the use of a definition list to define a consolidated
field (note that docutils requires a space before and after the '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:</span></tt>' used
to mark classifiers).</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">fox_speed</span>(size, weight, age):
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> Return the maximum speed for a fox.</span>
<span class="py-string"> :Parameters:</span>
<span class="py-string"> size</span>
<span class="py-string"> The size of the fox (in meters)</span>
<span class="py-string"> weight : float</span>
<span class="py-string"> The weight of the fox (in stones)</span>
<span class="py-string"> age : int</span>
<span class="py-string"> The age of the fox (in years)</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
<p>The following consolidated fields are currently supported by epydoc:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Consolidated Field Tag</th>
<th class="head">Corresponding Base Field Tag</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:Parameters:</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:param:</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:Exceptions:</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:except:</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:Groups:</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:group:</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:Keywords:</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:keyword:</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:Variables:</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:var:</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:IVariables:</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:ivar:</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:CVariables:</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:cvar:</span></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:Types:</span></tt></td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:type:</span></tt></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="graph-directives">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id80">6.1.3 Graph directives</a></h3>
<p>The epydoc reStructuredText reader defines several custom <cite>directives</cite>, which
can be used to automatically generate a variety of graphs. The following custom
directives are currently defined:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="30%" />
<col width="70%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Directive</th>
<th class="head">Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="first last literal-block">
.. classtree:: [<em>classes...</em>]
:dir: <em>up|down|left|right</em>
</pre>
</td>
<td>Display a class hierarchy for the given class or classes (including all
superclasses & subclasses). If no class is specified, and the directive
is used in a class's docstring, then that class's class hierarchy will
be displayed. The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">dir</span></tt> option specifies the orientation for the graph
(default=<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">down</span></tt>).</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><pre class="first last literal-block">
.. packagetree:: [<em>modules...</em>]
:dir: <em>up|down|left|right</em>
:style: <em>uml|tree</em>
</pre>
</td>
<td>Display a package hierarchy for the given module or modules (including
all subpackages and submodules). If no module is specified, and the
directive is used in a module's docstring, then that module's package
hierarchy will be displayed. The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">dir</span></tt> option specifies the
orientation for the graph (default=<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">down</span></tt>). The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">style</span></tt> option
specifies whether packages should be displayed in a tree, or using
nested UML symbols.</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><pre class="first last literal-block">
.. importgraph:: [<em>modules...</em>]
:dir: <em>up|down|left|right</em>
</pre>
</td>
<td>Display an import graph for the given module or modules. If no module
is specified, and the directive is used in a module's docstring, then
that module's import graph will be displayed. The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">dir</span></tt> option
specifies the orientation for the graph (default=<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">left</span></tt>).</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><pre class="first last literal-block">
.. callgraph:: [<em>functions...</em>]
:dir: <em>up|down|left|right</em>
</pre>
</td>
<td>Display a call graph for the given function or functions. If no
function is specified, and the directive is used in a function's
docstring, then that function's call graph will be displayed. The
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">dir</span></tt> option specifies the orientation for the graph (default=<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">right</span></tt>).</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><pre class="first last literal-block">
.. dotgraph:: [<em>title...</em>]
:caption: <em>text...</em>
<em>graph...</em>
</pre>
</td>
<td>Display a custom Graphviz dot graph. The body of the directive
(<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">graph...</span></tt>) should contain the body of a dot graph. The optional
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">title</span></tt> argument, if specified, is used as the title of the graph.
The optional <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">caption</span></tt> option can be used to provide a caption for
the graph.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="colorized-snippets-directive">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id81">6.1.4 Colorized snippets directive</a></h3>
<p>Using reStructuredText markup it is possible to specify Python snippets in a
<a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/user/rst/quickref.html#bullet-lists">doctest block</a>. SUch block will be colorized as in epytext <a class="reference internal" href="#doctest-blocks">Doctest Blocks</a>.</p>
<pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-prompt">>>> </span><span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">double</span>(x):
<span class="py-more">... </span> return x * 2
<span class="py-more">...</span>
<span class="py-prompt">>>> </span><span class="py-keyword">print</span> double(8)
<span class="py-output">16</span></pre>
<p>Doctest block are mostly useful to be run as a part of automatized test suite
using the <a class="reference external" href="http://docs.python.org/lib/module-doctest.html">doctest</a> module. If the Python prompt gets in your way when you try
to copy and paste and you are not interested in self-testing docstrings, the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">python</span></tt> directive will let you obtain a simple block of colorized text:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="first last literal-block">
.. python::
def fib(n):
"""Print a Fibonacci series."""
a, b = 0, 1
while b < n:
print b,
a, b = b, a+b
</pre>
</td>
<td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">fib</span>(n):
<span class="py-string">"""Print a Fibonacci series."""</span>
a, b = 0, 1
while b < n:
<span class="py-keyword">print</span> b,
a, b = b, a+b</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="external-api-links">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id82">6.1.5 External API links</a></h3>
<p>Epydoc can be used to create hyperlinks from your package documentation towards
objects defined in the API of other packages. Such links are similar to
ordinary <a class="reference internal" href="#documentation-crossreference-links">documentation crossreference links</a>, but it is required to configure
Epydoc setting up a new <a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/roles.html">interpreted text role</a>, binding it to an external API.</p>
<p>To create a new role, the command line option <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--external-api=</span></tt><em>NAME</em> must
be used. This option introduces a new interpreted text role called <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">NAME</span></tt>,
which can be used to refer to objects defined in an external API.</p>
<p>You can alternatively use a configuration file for this and all the other
options: see the <a class="reference internal" href="#sample-configuration-file">sample configuration file</a> for a comprehensive example.</p>
<p>For example, if your program needs to programmatically use the Epydoc package
itself, your docstrings may refer to functions described by Epydoc API:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
If you want to print a value, you can use
the :epydoc:`apidoc.pp_apidoc()` function.
</pre>
<p>When you will generate the API documentation for such program, you will
need the option <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--external-api=epydoc</span></tt> or you will get parsing errors due
to the unknown role.</p>
<p>Of course this doesn't help to really create cross references: the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--external-api</span></tt> option suffices to stop Epydoc complaining about unknown
roles, but the text is simply rendered in a monotype font and no link is
created.</p>
<p>What Epydoc requires to create external API links is a mapping from the names
of the objects exposed by the API and the URL where such objects are actually
described. Such mapping must be provided as a text file, with an object name
and its URL on each line, separated by a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">tab</span></tt> character. For example the
Epydoc API documentation may be represented by a file names <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">api-objects.txt</span></tt>
containing:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
epydoc -> epydoc-module.html
epydoc.apidoc -> epydoc.apidoc-module.html
epydoc.apidoc.UNKNOWN -> epydoc.apidoc-module.html#UNKNOWN
epydoc.apidoc._pp_val -> epydoc.apidoc-module.html#_pp_val
epydoc.apidoc.py_src_filename -> epydoc.util-module.html#py_src_filename
epydoc.apidoc.pp_apidoc -> epydoc.apidoc-module.html#pp_apidoc
epydoc.apidoc._pp_list -> epydoc.apidoc-module.html#_pp_list
... ...
... ...
</pre>
<p>Epydoc's HTML writer indeed includes such file in its output: see <a class="reference internal" href="#html-files">HTML
Files</a> for details.</p>
<p>You can bind the definition file to the interpreted text role name using
the command line option <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--external-api-file=</span></tt><em>NAME:FILENAME</em>.In the
previous example you can use:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
--external-api-file=epydoc:api-objects.txt
</pre>
<p>This helps Epydoc to create relative urls: in the previous example the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">apidoc.pp_apidoc()</span></tt> label will be linked with the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.apidoc-module.html#_pp_val</span></tt> URL.</p>
<p>You can specify a new root for the generated links using the last command line
option: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--external-api-root=</span></tt><em>NAME:STRING</em>. <em>STRING</em> will be attached
in front of any URL returned by the <em>NAME</em> text role. For example, to let your
program refer to Epydoc API whose documentation is published at
<a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/api/">http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/api/</a> you can use the options:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
--external-api-root=epydoc:http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/api/
</pre>
<p>this will let your reference <a class="reference external" href="http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/api/epydoc.apidoc-module.html#pp_apidoc"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">apidoc.pp_apidoc()</span></tt></a> point at the
right documentation.</p>
<p>The three options can be used any number of time, effectively allowing to link
towards all the required external packages.</p>
<div class="section" id="names-resolution">
<h4><a class="toc-backref" href="#id83">6.1.5.1 Names resolution</a></h4>
<p>When an external API link is to be created, the required name is split along
any separator ('<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.</span></tt>', '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">::</span></tt>', '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-></span></tt>'). Everything after the first noise
character (for example after an '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">(</span></tt>') is discarded.</p>
<p>The name fragment is looked for in the names defined in the description file:
first an exact match is attempted; if no name exactly matches the required
name, a partial match is attempted: the required name is compared with the
<em>trailing parts</em> of the names in the file.</p>
<p>If a single name is found in this lookup, then its URL is returned. If the
name is not found, or if it matches with the trailing part of many defined
names, a warning is raised and the name is rendered as literal text.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="linking-from-standalone-documents">
<h4><a class="toc-backref" href="#id84">6.1.5.2 Linking from standalone documents</a></h4>
<p>Epydoc provides the script <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">apirst2html.py</span></tt> which allows you to use the
previously described interpreted text roles from any reST document. The script
exposes the same interface of the standard Docutils script <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">rst2html.py</span></tt> but
provides the extra command line options described in <a class="reference internal" href="#external-api-links">External API links</a>.</p>
<p>With such tool you will be able to create hypertextual documentation of your
package with direct links to its API.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="indexed-terms-in-restructuredtext">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id85">6.1.6 Indexed Terms in reStructuredText</a></h3>
<p>Epydoc uses <a class="reference internal" href="#indexed-terms">indexed terms</a> to create a table of terms definitions. Indexed
terms are created using the epytext markup <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">X{...}</span></tt>.</p>
<p>If you want to create indexed terms in reStructuredText modules,
you can use the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">term</span></tt> <a class="reference external" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/roles.html">interpreted text role</a>. For example:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="50%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Docstring Input</th>
<th class="head">Rendered Output</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td><pre class="py-doctest">
<span class="py-keyword">def</span> <span class="py-defname">example</span>():
<span class="py-string">"""</span>
<span class="py-string"> An :term:`index term` is a term that</span>
<span class="py-string"> should be included in the index.</span>
<span class="py-string"> """</span>
<span class="py-comment">#[...]</span></pre>
</td>
<td><p class="first">An <em>index term</em> is a term that should be included in the index.</p>
<blockquote class="last">
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="46%" />
<col width="54%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head" colspan="2">Index</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td>index term</td>
<td><em>example</em></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>x intercept</td>
<td><em>x_intercept</em></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>y intercept</td>
<td><em>x_intercept</em></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</blockquote>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="id15">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id86">6.2 Javadoc</a></h2>
<p><a class="reference external" href="http://java.sun.com/j2se/javadoc/">Javadoc</a> is a markup language developed by Sun Microsystems for documenting
Java APIs. The epydoc implementation of Javadoc is based on the <a class="reference external" href="http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/tooldocs/solaris/javadoc.html">Javadoc 1.4.2
reference documentation</a>. However, there are likely to be some minor incompatibilities between Sun's implementation and epydoc's. Known incompatibilities include:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Epydoc does not support the Javadoc block tag <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@serial</span></tt>.</li>
<li>Epydoc does not support the following Javadoc inline tags: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">{@docroot}</span></tt>,
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">{@inheritdoc}</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">{@value}</span></tt>.</li>
<li>Epydoc adds many field tags that Sun does not include, such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@var</span></tt>,
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@type</span></tt>, and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@group</span></tt>.</li>
</ul>
<div class="section" id="javadoc-fields">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id87">6.2.1 Javadoc Fields</a></h3>
<p>For compatibility with Javadoc, every <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@see</span></tt> field is assumed to contain a
single crossreference link, unless its body is quoted, or it starts with an
HTML tag. See the <a class="reference external" href="http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/tooldocs/solaris/javadoc.html#@see">Javadoc reference manual</a> for more information about how the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@see</span></tt> field is encoded in Javadoc.</p>
<p>Because Javadoc does not mark end of the optional argument, field arguments
must contain exactly one word. Thus, multi-word arguments are not available
in Javadoc. In particular, all group names must be single words.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="references">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id88">7 References</a></h1>
<!-- $Id: manual-reference.txt 1549 2007-02-24 16:23:49Z dvarrazzo $ -->
<div class="section" id="command-line-usage">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id89">7.1 Command Line Usage</a></h2>
<p>Usage: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc.py</span></tt> [<em>ACTION</em>] [<em>options</em>] <em>NAMES...</em></p>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt>NAMES...</dt>
<dd>A list of the Python objects that should be documented. Objects can be
specified using dotted names (such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.path</span></tt>), module filenames (such
as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc/epytext.py</span></tt>), or package directory names (such as
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc/</span></tt>). Packages are expanded to include all sub-modules and
sub-packages.</dd>
<dt>options</dt>
<dd><pre class="first last literal-block">
--config=FILE A configuration file, specifying additional OPTIONS
and/or NAMES. This option may be repeated.
-o PATH, --output=PATH
The output directory. If PATH does not exist, then it
will be created.
-q, --quiet Decrease the verbosity.
-v, --verbose Increase the verbosity.
--debug Show full tracebacks for internal errors.
--simple-term Do not try to use color or cursor control when
displaying the progress bar, warnings, or errors.
Actions:
--html Write HTML output.
--text Write plaintext output. (not implemented yet)
--latex Write LaTeX output.
--dvi Write DVI output.
--ps Write Postscript output.
--pdf Write PDF output.
--check Check completeness of docs.
--pickle Write the documentation to a pickle file.
--version Show epydoc's version number and exit.
-h, --help Show this message and exit. For help on specific
topics, use "--help TOPIC". Use "--help topics" for a
list of available help topics
Generation Options:
--docformat=NAME The default markup language for docstrings. Defaults
to "epytext".
--parse-only Get all information from parsing (don't introspect)
--introspect-only Get all information from introspecting (don't parse)
--exclude=PATTERN Exclude modules whose dotted name matches the regular
expression PATTERN
--exclude-introspect=PATTERN
Exclude introspection of modules whose dotted name
matches the regular expression PATTERN
--exclude-parse=PATTERN
Exclude parsing of modules whose dotted name matches
the regular expression PATTERN
--inheritance=STYLE
The format for showing inheritance objects. STYLE
should be one of: grouped, listed, included.
--show-private Include private variables in the output. (default)
--no-private Do not include private variables in the output.
--show-imports List each module's imports.
--no-imports Do not list each module's imports. (default)
--show-sourcecode Include source code with syntax highlighting in the
HTML output. (default)
--no-sourcecode Do not include source code with syntax highlighting in
the HTML output.
--include-log Include a page with the process log (epydoc-log.html)
Output Options:
--name=NAME The documented project's name (for the navigation
bar).
--css=STYLESHEET The CSS stylesheet. STYLESHEET can be either a
builtin stylesheet or the name of a CSS file.
--url=URL The documented project's URL (for the navigation bar).
--navlink=HTML HTML code for a navigation link to place in the
navigation bar.
--top=PAGE The "top" page for the HTML documentation. PAGE can
be a URL, the name of a module or class, or one of the
special names "trees.html", "indices.html", or
"help.html"
--help-file=FILE An alternate help file. FILE should contain the body
of an HTML file -- navigation bars will be added to
it.
--show-frames Include frames in the HTML output. (default)
--no-frames Do not include frames in the HTML output.
--separate-classes When generating LaTeX or PDF output, list each class
in its own section, instead of listing them under
their containing module.
API Linking Options:
--external-api=NAME
Define a new API document. A new interpreted text
role NAME will be added.
--external-api-file=NAME:FILENAME
Use records in FILENAME to resolve objects in the API
named NAME.
--external-api-root=NAME:STRING
Use STRING as prefix for the URL generated from the
API NAME.
Graph Options:
--graph=GRAPHTYPE Include graphs of type GRAPHTYPE in the generated
output. Graphs are generated using the Graphviz dot
executable. If this executable is not on the path,
then use --dotpath to specify its location. This
option may be repeated to include multiple graph types
in the output. GRAPHTYPE should be one of: all,
classtree, callgraph, umlclasstree.
--dotpath=PATH The path to the Graphviz 'dot' executable.
--graph-font=FONT Specify the font used to generate Graphviz graphs.
(e.g., helvetica or times).
--graph-font-size=SIZE
Specify the font size used to generate Graphviz
graphs, in points.
--pstat=FILE A pstat output file, to be used in generating call
graphs.
Return Value Options:
--fail-on-error Return a non-zero exit status, indicating failure, if
any errors are encountered.
--fail-on-warning Return a non-zero exit status, indicating failure, if
any errors or warnings are encountered (not including
docstring warnings).
--fail-on-docstring-warning
Return a non-zero exit status, indicating failure, if
any errors or warnings are encountered (including
docstring warnings).
</pre>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="sample-configuration-file">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id90">7.2 Sample Configuration File</a></h2>
<p>Configuration files, specified using the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--config</span></tt> option, may be used to
specify both the list of objects to document, and the options that should be
used to document them. Configuration files are read using the standard
<a class="reference external" href="http://docs.python.org/lib/module-ConfigParser.html">ConfigParser</a> module. The following example configuration file demonstrates the
various options that you can set. Lines beginning with <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">#</span></tt> or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">;</span></tt> are
treated as comments.</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
<strong>[epydoc]</strong> <em># Epydoc section marker (required by ConfigParser)</em>
<em># The list of objects to document. Objects can be named using</em>
<em># dotted names, module filenames, or package directory names.</em>
<em># Alases for this option include "objects" and "values".</em>
<strong>modules: sys, os.path, re</strong>
<em># The type of output that should be generated. Should be one</em>
<em># of: html, text, latex, dvi, ps, pdf.</em>
<strong>output: html</strong>
<em># The path to the output directory. May be relative or absolute.</em>
<strong>target: html/</strong>
<em># An integer indicating how verbose epydoc should be. The default</em>
<em># value is 0; negative values will supress warnings and errors;</em>
<em># positive values will give more verbose output.</em>
<strong>verbosity: 0</strong>
<em># A boolean value indicating that Epydoc should show a tracaback</em>
<em># in case of unexpected error. By default don't show tracebacks</em>
<strong>debug: 0</strong>
<em># If True, don't try to use colors or cursor control when doing</em>
<em># textual output. The default False assumes a rich text prompt</em>
<strong>simple-term: 0</strong>
<strong>### Generation options</strong>
<em># The default markup language for docstrings, for modules that do</em>
<em># not define __docformat__. Defaults to epytext.</em>
<strong>docformat: epytext</strong>
<em># Whether or not parsing should be used to examine objects.</em>
<strong>parse: yes</strong>
<em># Whether or not introspection should be used to examine objects.</em>
<strong>introspect: yes</strong>
<em># Don't examine in any way the modules whose dotted name match this</em>
<em># regular expression pattern.</em>
<strong>#exclude</strong>
<em># Don't perform introspection on the modules whose dotted name match this</em>
<em># regular expression pattern.</em>
<strong>#exclude-introspect</strong>
<em># Don't perform parsing on the modules whose dotted name match this</em>
<em># regular expression pattern.</em>
<strong>#exclude-parse</strong>
<em># The format for showing inheritance objects.</em>
<em># It should be one of: 'grouped', 'listed', 'included'.</em>
<strong>inheritance: listed</strong>
<em># Whether or not to inclue private variables. (Even if included,</em>
<em># private variables will be hidden by default.)</em>
<strong>private: yes</strong>
<em># Whether or not to list each module's imports.</em>
<strong>imports: no</strong>
<em># Whether or not to include syntax highlighted source code in</em>
<em># the output (HTML only).</em>
<strong>sourcecode: yes</strong>
<em># Whether or not to includea a page with Epydoc log, containing</em>
<em># effective option at the time of generation and the reported logs.</em>
<strong>include-log: no</strong>
<strong>### Output options</strong>
<em># The documented project's name.</em>
<strong>#name: Example</strong>
<em># The CSS stylesheet for HTML output. Can be the name of a builtin</em>
<em># stylesheet, or the name of a file.</em>
<strong>css: white</strong>
<em># The documented project's URL.</em>
<strong>#url: http://some.project/</strong>
<em># HTML code for the project link in the navigation bar. If left</em>
<em># unspecified, the project link will be generated based on the</em>
<em># project's name and URL.</em>
<strong>#link: <a href="somewhere">My Cool Project</a></strong>
<em># The "top" page for the documentation. Can be a URL, the name</em>
<em># of a module or class, or one of the special names "trees.html",</em>
<em># "indices.html", or "help.html"</em>
<strong>#top: os.path</strong>
<em># An alternative help file. The named file should contain the</em>
<em># body of an HTML file; navigation bars will be added to it.</em>
<strong>#help: my_helpfile.html</strong>
<em># Whether or not to include a frames-based table of contents.</em>
<strong>frames: yes</strong>
<em># Whether each class should be listed in its own section when</em>
<em># generating LaTeX or PDF output.</em>
<strong>separate-classes: no</strong>
<strong>### API linking options</strong>
<em># Define a new API document. A new interpreted text role</em>
<em># will be created</em>
<strong>#external-api: epydoc</strong>
<em># Use the records in this file to resolve objects in the API named NAME.</em>
<strong>#external-api-file: epydoc:api-objects.txt</strong>
<em># Use this URL prefix to configure the string returned for external API.</em>
<strong>#external-api-root: epydoc:http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/api</strong>
<strong>### Graph options</strong>
<em># The list of graph types that should be automatically included</em>
<em># in the output. Graphs are generated using the Graphviz "dot"</em>
<em># executable. Graph types include: "classtree", "callgraph",</em>
<em># "umlclass". Use "all" to include all graph types</em>
<strong>graph: all</strong>
<em># The path to the Graphviz "dot" executable, used to generate</em>
<em># graphs.</em>
<strong>dotpath: /usr/local/bin/dot</strong>
<em># The name of one or more pstat files (generated by the profile</em>
<em># or hotshot module). These are used to generate call graphs.</em>
<strong>pstat: profile.out</strong>
<em># Specify the font used to generate Graphviz graphs.</em>
<em># (e.g., helvetica or times).</em>
<strong>graph-font: Helvetica</strong>
<em># Specify the font size used to generate Graphviz graphs.</em>
<strong>graph-font-size: 10</strong>
<strong>### Return value options</strong>
<em># The condition upon which Epydoc should exit with a non-zero</em>
<em># exit status. Possible values are error, warning, docstring_warning</em>
<strong>#fail-on: error</strong>
</pre>
</div>
<div class="section" id="warnings-and-errors">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id91">7.3 Warnings and Errors</a></h2>
<p>If epydoc encounters an error while processing a docstring, it issues a warning
message that describes the error, and attempts to continue generating
documentation. Errors related to epytext are divided into three categories:</p>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt>Epytext Warnings</dt>
<dd>are caused by epytext docstrings that contain questionable or suspicious
markup. Epytext warnings do not prevent the docstring in question from
being parsed.</dd>
<dt>Field Warnings</dt>
<dd>are caused by epytext docstrings containing invalid fields. The contents of
the invalid field are generally ignored.</dd>
<dt>Epytext Errors</dt>
<dd>are caused by epytext docstrings that contain invalid markup. Whenever an
epytext error is detected, the docstring in question is treated as a
plaintext docstring.</dd>
</dl>
<p>The following sections list and describe the warning messages that epydoc can
generate. They are intended as a reference resource, which you can search for
more information and possible causes if you encounter an error and do not
understand it. These descriptions are also available in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">epydoc(1)</span></tt> man
page.</p>
<div class="section" id="epytext-warnings">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id92">7.3.1 Epytext Warnings</a></h3>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt>Possible mal-formatted field item.</dt>
<dd>Epytext detected a line that looks like a field item, but is not correctly
formatted. This typically occurs when the trailing colon (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:</span></tt>) is not
included in the field tag.</dd>
<dt>Possible heading typo.</dt>
<dd>Epytext detected a pair of lines that looks like a heading, but the number
of underline characters does not match the number of characters in the
heading. The number of characters in these two lines must match exactly for
them to be considered a heading.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="field-warnings">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id93">7.3.2 Field Warnings</a></h3>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@param</span></tt> for unknown parameter <em>param</em>.</dt>
<dd>A <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@param</span></tt> field was used to specify the type for a parameter that is not
included in the function's signature. This is typically caused by a typo in
the parameter name.</dd>
<dt><em>tag</em> did not expect an argument.</dt>
<dd>The field tag <em>tag</em> was used with an argument, but it does not take one.</dd>
<dt><em>tag</em> expected an argument.</dt>
<dd>The field tag <em>tag</em> was used without an argument, but it requires one.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@type</span></tt> for unknown parameter <em>param</em>.</dt>
<dd>A <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@type</span></tt> field was used to specify the type for a parameter that is not
included in the function's signature. This is typically caused by a typo in
the parameter name.</dd>
<dt><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@type</span></tt> for unknown variable <em>var</em>.</dt>
<dd>A <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@type</span></tt> field was used to specify the type for a variable, but no
other information is known about the variable. This is typically caused
by a typo in the variable name.</dd>
<dt>Unknown field tag <em>tag</em>.</dt>
<dd>A docstring contains a field with the unknown tag <em>tag</em>.</dd>
<dt>Redefinition of <em>field</em>.</dt>
<dd>Multiple field tags define the value of field in the same docstring, but
field can only take a single value.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="epytext-errors">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id94">7.3.3 Epytext Errors</a></h3>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt>Bad link target.</dt>
<dd>The target specified for an inline link contruction (L{...}) is not
well-formed. Link targets must be valid Python identifiers.</dd>
<dt>Bad uri target.</dt>
<dd>The target specified for an inline uri contruction (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">U{...}</span></tt>) is not
well-formed. This typically occurs if inline markup is nested inside the
URI target.</dd>
<dt>Fields must be at the top level.</dt>
<dd>The list of fields (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@param</span></tt>, etc.) is contained by some other block
structure (such as a list or a section).</dd>
<dt>Fields must be the final elements in an epytext string.</dt>
<dd>The list of fields (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">@param</span></tt>, etc.) is not at the end of a docstring.</dd>
<dt>Headings must occur at top level.</dt>
<dd>The heading is contianed in some other block structure (such as a list).</dd>
<dt>Improper doctest block indentation.</dt>
<dd>The doctest block dedents past the indentation of its initial prompt line.</dd>
<dt>Improper heading indentation.</dt>
<dd>The heading for a section is not left-aligned with the paragraphs in the
section that contains it.</dd>
<dt>Improper paragraph indentation.</dt>
<dd>The paragraphs within a block are not left-aligned. This error is often
generated when plaintext docstrings are parsed using epytext.</dd>
<dt>Invalid escape.</dt>
<dd>An unknown escape sequence was used with the inline escape construction
(<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">E{...}</span></tt>).</dd>
<dt>Lists must be indented.</dt>
<dd>An unindented line immediately following a paragraph starts with a list
bullet. Epydoc is not sure whether you meant to start a new list item, or
meant for a paragraph to include a word that looks like a bullet. If you
intended the former, then indent the list. If you intended the latter, then
change the word-wrapping of the paragraph, or escape the first character of
the word that looks like a bullet.</dd>
<dt>Unbalanced '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">{</span></tt>'.</dt>
<dd>The docstring contains unbalanced braces. Epytext requires that all braces
must be balanced. To include a single unbalanced brace, use the escape
sequences <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">E{lb}</span></tt> (left brace) and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">E{rb}</span></tt> (right brace).</dd>
<dt>Unbalanced '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">}</span></tt>'.</dt>
<dd>The docstring contains unbalanced braces. Epytext requires that all braces
must be balanced. To include a single unbalanced brace, use the escape
sequences <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">E{lb}</span></tt> (left brace) and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">E{rb}</span></tt> (right brace).</dd>
<dt>Unknown inline markup tag.</dt>
<dd>An unknown tag was used with the inline markup construction (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">x{...}</span></tt>).</dd>
<dt>Wrong underline character for heading.</dt>
<dd>The underline character used for this section heading does not indicate an
appopriate section level. The '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">=</span></tt>' character should be used to underline
sections; '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-</span></tt>' for subsections; and '<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">~</span></tt>' for subsubsections.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<table width="100%" class="navbox" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<a class="nav" href="index.html">
<td align="center" width="20%" class="nav">
<a class="nav" href="index.html">
Home</a></td></a>
<a class="nav" href="installing.html">
<td align="center" width="20%" class="nav">
<a class="nav" href="installing.html">
Installing Epydoc</a></td></a>
<a class="nav" href="using.html">
<td align="center" width="20%" class="nav">
<a class="nav" href="using.html">
Using Epydoc</a></td></a>
<a class="nav" href="epytext.html">
<td align="center" width="20%" class="nav">
<a class="nav" href="epytext.html">
Epytext</a></td></a>
<td align="center" width="20%" class="nav">
<A href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/epydoc">
<IMG src="sflogo.png"
width="88" height="26" border="0" alt="SourceForge"
align="top"/></A></td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
|
