.TH fpdoc 1 "9 march 2002" "Free Pascal" "Free Pascal unit documentation generator"
.SH NAME
fpdoc \- The FPC Pascal unit documentation generator.

.SH SYNOPSIS

\fBfpdoc\fP \-\-input=inputcommand [\-\-output=output] [\-\-format=fmt] 
[\-\-descr=descriptionfile] [\-\-package=packagename] [options]

.SH Description

.B fpdoc
scans a Free Pascal unit source file and generates documentation for it.
The documentation can be in various formats (currently HTML and LaTeX)
It can read various description files which contain the description for the 
various symbols found in the unit file.

.SH Usage

You can invoke 
.B fpdoc
with as the only required argument the 'input' and 'package' arguments. 
It should at least contain the name of the unit file for which 
documentation should be generated and the name of the package to which the
unit belongs.

.SH Options

.B fpdoc
has several options, most of them optional, defaults will be used in most
cases.

.TP
.BI \-\-content
This option tells 
.B fpdoc
to generate a content file. A content file contains a list of all the
possible anchors (labels) in the generated documentation file, and can be
used to create cross-links in documentation for different units, using the
.B --import
option.
.TP
.BI \-\-cputarget=value
This option tells 
.B fpdoc
for which CPU to generate documentation. This simply defines the appropriate CPU macros.
.TP
.BI \-\-descr=descfile
This option specifies the name of a description file
.B descfile
that contains the actual documentation for the unit. 
This option can be given several times, for several description files.
.TP
.BI \-\-descr\-dir=dir
This option specifies the name of a directory with XML description files, named
.B dir
This option can be given several times, for several description directories. 
This option is equivalent to specifying all files in the directory with the \-\-descr option.
.TP
.BI \-\-dont\-trim
This option tells fpdoc not to trim whitespace in the XML files.
By default, whitespace is trimmed from the input, which can have undesirable side\-effects
in for instance PRE tags.
.TP
.BI \-\-dry\-run
This option tells 
.B fpdoc 
not to generate any output, but just parse all input. This can be used with the verbose option
to check what errors remain in the documentation, or what is still missing.
.TP
.BI \-\-format=fmt
Specifies the format
.B fmt
in which the documentation will be generated. Currenly,
the following formats are known:
.RS
.TP
.I chm
CHM with 8.3 conforming filenames, for windows mostly.
.TP
.I dxml
Delphi compatible XML output.
.TP
.I htm
HTML with 8.3 conforming filenames.
.TP
.I html
HTML with long filenames.
.TP
.I ipf
IPF output (OS/2 format, can be used with docview from fpGUI).
.TP
.I xhtml
XHTML with long filesnames.
.TP
.I latex
LaTex, which uses the fpc.sty style used by the Free Pascal documentation.
.TP
.I man
man page output (unix manual pages, one page per identifier).
.TP
.I rtf
RTF output.
.TP
.I txt
Plain text output.
.TP
.I xml-struct
Structured XML.
.RE
.TP
.BI \-\-help
Show a command-line option summary.
.TP
.BI \-\-hide\-protected
By default, the documentation will include descriptions and listings of
protected fields and methods in classes or objects. This option changes this
behaviour; if it is specified, no documentation will be generated for these
methods. Note that public methods or properties that refer to these
protected method will then have a dangling (i.e. unavailable) link.
.TP
.BI \-\-html\-search=link
Adds an entry for an HTML search page at location
.B link
in the headers of the generated HTML pages. There is no search page
provided, this should be made and provided by the user.
.TP
.BI \-\-import=impfile
imports a content file 
.B impfile
from another documentation set. This can be used to
resolve references to elements within this other documentation file;
.TP
.B \-\-input=cmd
This option tells 
.B fpdoc
what input file should be used. The argument
.B cmd
can be just a filename, but can
also be a complete compiler command-line with options that concern the 
scanning of the pascal source: defines, include files, syntax options, 
as they would be specified to the free pascal compiler when compiling 
the file. If a complete command is used, then it should be enclosed in 
single or double quotes, so the shell will not break them in parts.
It is possible to specify multiple input commands; they will be treated one
by one, and documentation will be generated for each of them.
.TP
.B \-\-input\-dir=dir
This option tells 
.B fpdoc
to add all .pas and .pp files in the directory named
.B cmd
as input files to the documenter. This is equivalend to specifying all files in the directory with the 
.B \-\-input 
command.
.TP
.BI \-\-lang=language
Sets the language for the output file. This will mainly set the strings used
for the headers in various parts of the documentation files (by default
they're in english). Currently, valid options are
.RS
.TP
.I de 
German.
.TP
.I fr
French.
.TP
.I nl
Dutch.
.RE
.TP
.BI \-\-latex\-extension=ext
Sets the extension to use for the LaTeX file to
.I ext
the default is 
.BI .tex
(with . (dot) included).
.TP
.BI \-\-latex\-highlight
Switches on an internal latex syntax highlighter. This is not yet
implemented. By default, syntax highlighting is provided by the syntax
package that comes with fpc.
.TP
.BI \-\-mo\-dir=dir
This option tells 
.B fpdoc
where to look for the translation files that can be used to internationalize  fpdoc's output.
.TP
.BI \-\-ostarget=value
This option tells 
.B fpdoc
for which operating system to generate documentation. This simply defines the appropriate operating system macros.
.TP
.BI \-\-output=name 
This option tells 
.B fpdoc
where the output file should be generated. How this option is interpreted
depends on the format that is used. For latex, 
.B name
is interpreted as the
filename for the tex file. For all other formats,
.B name
is interpreted as
the directory where all documentation files will be written. The directory
will be created if it does not yet exist. Standard this equals the package
name.
.TP
.BI \-\-package=packagename 
Specifies the package name. All units will be documented as part of 
.I packagename
, which is also the default output filename or directory. Only documentation
nodes inside a package node with this name will be considered when
documenting.
.TP
.B \-\-parse\-impl
(Experimental) try to parse the implementation of a unit too, this can be used for syntax checking.
.TP
.B \-\-project=file
This option tells 
.B fpdoc
to read all options from a project file. This is an XML file, please see the documentation 
for more information about the format for this file.
.TP
.BI \-\-show\-private 
By default, no documentation is generated for private methods or fields.
This option causes 
.B fpdoc
to generate documentation for these methods as well.
.TP
.BI \-\-verbose 
By default, 
.B fpdoc
is sparse with output. This tells fpdoc to generate some more information about what it is doing.
.TP
.BI \-\-warn\-no\-node 
If this option is specified, 
.B fpdoc
will emit a warning if it does not find a description node for an identifier
it is documenting.
.TP
.BI \-\-write\-project=file 
If this option is specified, 
.B fpdoc
will write a fpdoc project file (to the specified file name) that corresponds 
to the command-line options given.

.SH SEE ALSO
.IP 
.BR  ppc386 (1)
.BR  latex (1)
.BR  makeskel (1)