Javadoc Task

Javadoc/Javadoc2

Description

Generates code documentation using the javadoc tool.

The source directory will be recursively scanned for Java source files to process but only those matching the inclusion rules, and not matching the exclusions rules will be passed to the javadoc tool. This allows wildcards to be used to choose between package names, reducing verbosity and management costs over time. This task, however, has no notion of "changed" files, unlike the javac task. This means all packages will be processed each time this task is run. In general, however, this task is used much less frequently.

NOTE: since javadoc calls System.exit(), javadoc cannot be run inside the same VM as Apache Ant without breaking functionality. For this reason, this task always forks the VM. This overhead is not significant since javadoc is normally a heavy application and will be called infrequently.

NOTE: the packagelist attribute allows you to specify the list of packages to document outside of the Ant file. It's a much better practice to include everything inside the build.xml file. This option was added in order to make it easier to migrate from regular makefiles, where you would use this option of javadoc. The packages listed in packagelist are not checked, so the task performs even if some packages are missing or broken. Use this option if you wish to convert from an existing makefile. Once things are running you should then switch to the regular notation.

DEPRECATION: the javadoc2 task simply points to the javadoc task and it's there for back compatibility reasons. Since this task will be removed in future versions, you are strongly encouraged to use javadoc instead.

In the table below, 1.2 means available if your current Java VM is a 1.2 VM (but not 1.3 or later), 1.4+ for any VM of at least version 1.4, otherwise any VM of at least version 1.2 is acceptable. JDKs <1.4 are no longer supported. If you specify the executable attribute it is up to you to ensure that this command supports the attributes you wish to use.

Note:
When generating the JavaDocs for classes which contains annotations you maybe get a java.lang.ClassCastException: com.sun.tools.javadoc.ClassDocImpl. This is due bug-6442982. The cause is that JavaDoc cannot find the implementations of used annotations. The workaround is providing the jars with these implementations (like JAXBs @XmlType, ...) to <javadoc> using classpath, classpathref attributes or nested <classpath> element.

Note: many problems with running javadoc stem from command lines that have become too long - even though the error message doesn't give the slightest hint this may be the problem. If you encounter problems with the task, try to set the useexternalfile attribute to true first.

If you use multiple ways to specify where javadoc should be looking for sources your result will be the union of all specified documentations. If you, e.g., specify a sourcepath attribute and also a nested packageset both pointing at the same directory your excludepackagenames attribute won't have any effect unless it agrees with the exclude patterns of the packageset (and vice versa).

Parameters

Attribute Description Availability on Java Required

sourcepath Specify where to find source files all At least one of the four or nested <sourcepath>, <fileset>. module or <packageset>

sourcepathref Specify where to find source files by reference to a PATH defined elsewhere. all

sourcefiles Comma separated list of source files -- see also the nested source element. all

modulenames Comma separated list of module names -- see also the nested module element. since Ant 1.9.14 all

destdir Destination directory for output files all Yes, unless a doclet has been specified.

maxmemory Max amount of memory to allocate to the javadoc VM all No

packagenames Comma separated list of package files (with terminating wildcard) -- see also the nested package element. all No

packageList The name of a file containing the packages to process all No

classpath Specify where to find user class files all No

Bootclasspath Override location of class files loaded by the bootstrap class loader all No

classpathref Specify where to find user class files by reference to a PATH defined elsewhere. all No

bootclasspathref Override location of class files loaded by the bootstrap class loader by reference to a PATH defined elsewhere. all No

Extdirs Override location of installed extensions all No

Overview Read overview documentation from HTML file all No

access Access mode: one of public, protected, package, or private all No (default protected)

Public Show only public classes and members all No

Protected Show protected/public classes and members (default) all No

Package Show package/protected/public classes and members all No

Private Show all classes and members all No

Old Generate output using JDK 1.1 emulating doclet.
Note: as of Ant 1.8.0 this attribute doesn't have any effect since the javadoc of Java 1.4 (required by Ant 1.8.0) doesn't support the -1.1 switch anymore. 1.2 No

Verbose Output messages about what Javadoc is doing all No

Locale Locale to be used, e.g. en_US or en_US_WIN all No

Encoding Source file encoding name all No

Version Include @version paragraphs all No

Use Create class and package usage pages all No

Author Include @author paragraphs all No

Splitindex Split index into one file per letter all No

Windowtitle Browser window title for the documentation (text) all No

Doctitle Include title for the package index(first) page (html-code) all No

Header Include header text for each page (html-code) all No

Footer Include footer text for each page (html-code) all No

bottom Include bottom text for each page (html-code) all No

link Create links to javadoc output at the given URL -- see also the nested link element. all No

linkoffline Link to docs at <url> using package list at <url2> - separate the URLs by using a space character -- see also the nested link element. all No

group Group specified packages together in overview page. The format is as described below -- see also the nested group element. all No

nodeprecated Do not include @deprecated information all No

nodeprecatedlist Do not generate deprecated list all No

notree Do not generate class hierarchy all No

noindex Do not generate index all No

nohelp Do not generate help link all No

nonavbar Do not generate navigation bar all No

serialwarn Generate warning about @serial tag all No

helpfile Specifies the HTML help file to use all No

stylesheetfile Specifies the CSS stylesheet to use all No

charset Charset for cross-platform viewing of generated documentation all No

docencoding Output file encoding name all No

doclet Specifies the class file that starts the doclet used in generating the documentation -- see also the nested doclet element. all No

docletpath Specifies the path to the doclet class file that is specified with the -doclet option. all No

docletpathref Specifies the path to the doclet class file that is specified with the -doclet option by reference to a PATH defined elsewhere. all No

additionalparam Lets you add additional parameters to the javadoc command line. Useful for doclets. Parameters containing spaces need to be quoted using " -- see also the nested arg element. all No

failonerror Stop the buildprocess if the command exits with a returncode other than 0. all No

failonwarning Stop the buildprocess if a warning is emitted - i.e. if javadoc's output contains the word "warning". since Ant 1.9.4 all No

excludepackagenames comma separated list of packages you don't want docs for -- see also the nested excludepackage element. all No

defaultexcludes indicates whether default excludes should be used (yes | no); default excludes are used when omitted. all No

useexternalfile indicates whether the sourcefile name specified in srcfiles or as nested source elements should be written to a temporary file to make the command line shorter. Also applies to the package names specified via the packagenames attribute or nested package elements. Since Ant 1.7.0, also applies to all the other command line options. (yes | no). Default is no.
If enabled, the file will be written to the temporary directory.
all No

source Necessary to enable javadoc to handle assertions present in J2SE v 1.4 source code. Set this to "1.4" to documents code that compiles using "javac -source 1.4".
A default value for this attribute can be provided using the magic ant.build.javac.source property. 1.4+ No

linksource Generate hyperlinks to source files. since Ant 1.6. (yes | no). Default is no. 1.4+ No

breakiterator Use the new breakiterator algorithm. since Ant 1.6. (yes | no). Default is no. 1.4+ No

noqualifier Enables the -noqualifier argument - must be all or a colon separated list of packages. since Ant 1.6. 1.4+ No

includenosourcepackages If set to true, packages that don't contain Java source but a package.html will get documented as well. since Ant 1.6.3. all No (default is false)

executable Specify a particular javadoc executable to use in place of the default binary (found in the same JDK as Ant is running in). since Ant 1.6.3. all No

docfilessubdirs Enables deep-copying of doc-files subdirectories. Defaults to false. since Ant 1.8.0. 1.4 No

excludedocfilessubdir Colon-separated list of doc-files' subdirectories to exclude if docfilessubdirs is true. since Ant 1.8.0. 1.4 No

postProcessGeneratedJavadocs Whether to post-process the generated javadocs in order to mitigate CVE-2013-1571. Defaults to true. Since Ant 1.9.2
There is a frame injection attack possible in javadocs generated by Oracle JDKs prior to Java7 Update 25 (details). When this flag is set to true, Ant will check whether the docs are vulnerable and will try to fix them. 1.4 No

modulesourcepath Specify where to find module source files since Ant 1.9.14 all No

modulesourcepathref Specify where to find module source files by reference to a PATH defined elsewhere. since Ant 1.9.14 all No

modulepath Specify where to find module files since Ant 1.9.14 all No

modulepathref Specify where to find module files by reference to a PATH defined elsewhere. since Ant 1.9.14 all No

Format of the group attribute

The arguments are comma-delimited. Each single argument is 2 space-delimited strings, where the first one is the group's title and the second one a colon delimited list of packages.

If you need to specify more than one group, or a group whose title contains a comma or a space character, using nested group elements is highly recommended.

E.g.:

group="XSLT_Packages org.apache.xalan.xslt*,XPath_Packages org.apache.xalan.xpath*"

Parameters specified as nested elements

packageset

A DirSet. All matched directories that contain Java source files will be passed to javadoc as package names. Package names are created from the directory names by translating the directory separator into dots. Ant assumes the base directory of the packageset points to the root of a package hierarchy.

The packagenames, excludepackagenames and defaultexcludes attributes of the task have no effect on the nested <packageset> elements.

fileset

A FileSet. All matched files will be passed to javadoc as source files. Ant will automatically add the include pattern **/*.java (and **/package.html if includenosourcepackages is true) to these filesets.

Nested filesets can be used to document sources that are in the default package or if you want to exclude certain files from documentation. If you want to document all source files and don't use the default package, packagesets should be used instead as this increases javadocs performance.

The packagenames, excludepackagenames and defaultexcludes attributes of the task have no effect on the nested <fileset> elements.

sourcefiles

A container for arbitrary file system based resource collections. All files contained in any of the nested collections (this includes nested filesets, filelists or paths) will be passed to javadoc as source files.

package

Same as one entry in the list given by packagenames.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required

name The package name (may be a wildcard) Yes

excludepackage

Same as one entry in the list given by excludepackagenames.

Parameters
Same as for package.
module

since Ant 1.9.14

Same as one entry in the list given by modulenames.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required

name The module name Yes

source

Same as one entry in the list given by sourcefiles.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required

file The source file to document Yes

doctitle

Same as the doctitle attribute, but you can nest text inside the element this way.

If the nested text contains line breaks, you must use the useexternalfile attribute and set it to true.

header

Similar to <doctitle>.

footer

Similar to <doctitle>.

bottom

Similar to <doctitle>.

link

Create link to javadoc output at the given URL. This performs the same role as the link and linkoffline attributes. You can use either syntax (or both at once), but with the nested elements you can easily specify multiple occurrences of the arguments.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required

href The URL for the external documentation you wish to link to. This can be an absolute URL, or a relative file name. Yes

offline True if this link is not available online at the time of generating the documentation No

packagelistLoc The location to the directory containing the package-list file for the external documentation One of the two if the offline attribute is true

packagelistURL The URL of the the directory containing the package-list file for the external documentation

resolveLink If the link attribute is a relative file name, Ant will first try to locate the file relative to the current project's basedir and if it finds a file there use an absolute URL for the link attribute, otherwise it will pass the file name verbatim to the javadoc command. No, default is false.

group

Separates packages on the overview page into whatever groups you specify, one group per table. This performs the same role as the group attribute. You can use either syntax (or both at once), but with the nested elements you can easily specify multiple occurrences of the arguments.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required

title Title of the group Yes, unless nested <title> given

packages List of packages to include in that group. Multiple packages are separated with ':'. Yes, unless nested <package>s given

The title may be specified as a nested <title> element with text contents, and the packages may be listed with nested <package> elements as for the main task.

doclet

The doclet nested element is used to specify the doclet that javadoc will use to process the input source files. A number of the standard javadoc arguments are actually arguments of the standard doclet. If these are specified in the javadoc task's attributes, they will be passed to the doclet specified in the <doclet> nested element. Such attributes should only be specified, therefore, if they can be interpreted by the doclet in use.

If the doclet requires additional parameters, these can be specified with <param> elements within the <doclet> element. These parameters are restricted to simple strings. An example usage of the doclet element is shown below:

<javadoc ... > <doclet name="theDoclet" path="path/to/theDoclet"> <param name="-foo" value="foovalue"/> <param name="-bar" value="barvalue"/> </doclet> </javadoc>

tag

If you want to specify a standard tag using a nested tag element because you want to determine the order the tags are output, you must not set the description attribute for those tags.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required

name Name of the tag (e.g. todo) Yes, unless the dir attribute is specified.

description Description for tag (e.g. To do:) No, the javadoc executable will pick a default if this is not specified.

enabled Whether or not the tag is enabled (defaults to true) No

scope Scope for the tag - the elements in which it can be used. This is a comma separated list of some of the elements: overview, packages, types, constructors, methods, fields or the default, all. No

dir If this attribute is specified, this element will behave as an implicit fileset. The files included by this fileset should contain each tag definition on a separate line, as described in the Javadoc reference guide:
ejb.bean:t:XDoclet EJB Tag todo:a:To Do
Note: The Javadoc reference quide has double quotes around the description part of the definition. This will not work when used in a file, as the definition is quoted again when given to the javadoc program.
Note: If this attribute is specified, all the other attributes in this element will be ignored. No

taglet

The taglet nested element is used to specify custom taglets beyond the default taglets.

Parameters

Attribute Description Required

name The name of the taglet class (e.g. com.sun.tools.doclets.ToDoTaglet) Yes

path A path specifying the search path for the taglet class (e.g. /home/taglets). The path may also be specified by a nested <path> element No

sourcepath, classpath, bootclasspath, modulepath, modulesourcepath

Javadoc's sourcepath, classpath, bootclasspath, modulepath, and modulesourcepath attributes are PATH like structure and can also be set via nested sourcepath, classpath, bootclasspath, modulepath, and modulesourcepath elements respectively.

arg

Use nested <arg> to specify additional arguments. See Command line arguments. Since Ant 1.6

Example

<javadoc packagenames="com.dummy.test.*" sourcepath="src" excludepackagenames="com.dummy.test.doc-files.*" defaultexcludes="yes" destdir="docs/api" author="true" version="true" use="true" windowtitle="Test API"> <doctitle><![CDATA[<h1>Test</h1>]]></doctitle> <bottom><![CDATA[<i>Copyright © 2000 Dummy Corp. All Rights Reserved.</i>]]></bottom> <tag name="todo" scope="all" description="To do:"/> <group title="Group 1 Packages" packages="com.dummy.test.a*"/> <group title="Group 2 Packages" packages="com.dummy.test.b*:com.dummy.test.c*"/> <link offline="true" href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/" packagelistLoc="C:\tmp"/> <link href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/"/> </javadoc>

is the same as

<javadoc destdir="docs/api" author="true" version="true" use="true" windowtitle="Test API"> <packageset dir="src" defaultexcludes="yes"> <include name="com/dummy/test/**"/> <exclude name="com/dummy/test/doc-files/**"/> </packageset> <doctitle><![CDATA[<h1>Test</h1>]]></doctitle> <bottom><![CDATA[<i>Copyright © 2000 Dummy Corp. All Rights Reserved.</i>]]></bottom> <tag name="todo" scope="all" description="To do:"/> <group title="Group 1 Packages" packages="com.dummy.test.a*"/> <group title="Group 2 Packages" packages="com.dummy.test.b*:com.dummy.test.c*"/> <link offline="true" href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/" packagelistLoc="C:\tmp"/> <link href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/"/> </javadoc>

or

<javadoc destdir="docs/api" author="true" version="true" use="true" windowtitle="Test API"> <fileset dir="src" defaultexcludes="yes"> <include name="com/dummy/test/**"/> <exclude name="com/dummy/test/doc-files/**"/> </fileset> <doctitle><![CDATA[<h1>Test</h1>]]></doctitle> <bottom><![CDATA[<i>Copyright © 2000 Dummy Corp. All Rights Reserved.</i>]]></bottom> <tag name="todo" scope="all" description="To do:"/> <group title="Group 1 Packages" packages="com.dummy.test.a*"/> <group title="Group 2 Packages" packages="com.dummy.test.b*:com.dummy.test.c*"/> <link offline="true" href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/" packagelistLoc="C:\tmp"/> <link href="http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/"/> </javadoc>

Attribute	Description	Availability on Java	Required
sourcepath	Specify where to find source files	all	At least one of the four or nested `<sourcepath>`, `<fileset>`. `module` or `<packageset>`
sourcepathref	Specify where to find source files by reference to a PATH defined elsewhere.	all
sourcefiles	Comma separated list of source files -- see also the nested `source` element.	all
modulenames	Comma separated list of module names -- see also the nested `module` element. since Ant 1.9.14	all
destdir	Destination directory for output files	all	Yes, unless a doclet has been specified.
maxmemory	Max amount of memory to allocate to the javadoc VM	all	No
packagenames	Comma separated list of package files (with terminating wildcard) -- see also the nested `package` element.	all	No
packageList	The name of a file containing the packages to process	all	No
classpath	Specify where to find user class files	all	No
Bootclasspath	Override location of class files loaded by the bootstrap class loader	all	No
classpathref	Specify where to find user class files by reference to a PATH defined elsewhere.	all	No
bootclasspathref	Override location of class files loaded by the bootstrap class loader by reference to a PATH defined elsewhere.	all	No
Extdirs	Override location of installed extensions	all	No
Overview	Read overview documentation from HTML file	all	No
access	Access mode: one of `public`, `protected`, `package`, or `private`	all	No (default `protected`)
Public	Show only public classes and members	all	No
Protected	Show protected/public classes and members (default)	all	No
Package	Show package/protected/public classes and members	all	No
Private	Show all classes and members	all	No
Old	Generate output using JDK 1.1 emulating doclet. Note: as of Ant 1.8.0 this attribute doesn't have any effect since the javadoc of Java 1.4 (required by Ant 1.8.0) doesn't support the -1.1 switch anymore.	1.2	No
Verbose	Output messages about what Javadoc is doing	all	No
Locale	Locale to be used, e.g. en_US or en_US_WIN	all	No
Encoding	Source file encoding name	all	No
Version	Include @version paragraphs	all	No
Use	Create class and package usage pages	all	No
Author	Include @author paragraphs	all	No
Splitindex	Split index into one file per letter	all	No
Windowtitle	Browser window title for the documentation (text)	all	No
Doctitle	Include title for the package index(first) page (html-code)	all	No
Header	Include header text for each page (html-code)	all	No
Footer	Include footer text for each page (html-code)	all	No
bottom	Include bottom text for each page (html-code)	all	No
link	Create links to javadoc output at the given URL -- see also the nested `link` element.	all	No
linkoffline	Link to docs at `<url>` using package list at `<url2>` - separate the URLs by using a space character -- see also the nested `link` element.	all	No
group	Group specified packages together in overview page. The format is as described below -- see also the nested `group` element.	all	No
nodeprecated	Do not include @deprecated information	all	No
nodeprecatedlist	Do not generate deprecated list	all	No
notree	Do not generate class hierarchy	all	No
noindex	Do not generate index	all	No
nohelp	Do not generate help link	all	No
nonavbar	Do not generate navigation bar	all	No
serialwarn	Generate warning about @serial tag	all	No
helpfile	Specifies the HTML help file to use	all	No
stylesheetfile	Specifies the CSS stylesheet to use	all	No
charset	Charset for cross-platform viewing of generated documentation	all	No
docencoding	Output file encoding name	all	No
doclet	Specifies the class file that starts the doclet used in generating the documentation -- see also the nested `doclet` element.	all	No
docletpath	Specifies the path to the doclet class file that is specified with the -doclet option.	all	No
docletpathref	Specifies the path to the doclet class file that is specified with the -doclet option by reference to a PATH defined elsewhere.	all	No
additionalparam	Lets you add additional parameters to the javadoc command line. Useful for doclets. Parameters containing spaces need to be quoted using " -- see also the nested `arg` element.	all	No
failonerror	Stop the buildprocess if the command exits with a returncode other than 0.	all	No
failonwarning	Stop the buildprocess if a warning is emitted - i.e. if javadoc's output contains the word "warning". since Ant 1.9.4	all	No
excludepackagenames	comma separated list of packages you don't want docs for -- see also the nested `excludepackage` element.	all	No
defaultexcludes	indicates whether default excludes should be used (`yes` \| `no`); default excludes are used when omitted.	all	No
useexternalfile	indicates whether the sourcefile name specified in srcfiles or as nested source elements should be written to a temporary file to make the command line shorter. Also applies to the package names specified via the packagenames attribute or nested package elements. Since Ant 1.7.0, also applies to all the other command line options. (`yes` \| `no`). Default is no. If enabled, the file will be written to the temporary directory.	all	No
source	Necessary to enable javadoc to handle assertions present in J2SE v 1.4 source code. Set this to "1.4" to documents code that compiles using `"javac -source 1.4"`. A default value for this attribute can be provided using the magic `ant.build.javac.source` property.	1.4+	No
linksource	Generate hyperlinks to source files. since Ant 1.6. (`yes` \| `no`). Default is no.	1.4+	No
breakiterator	Use the new breakiterator algorithm. since Ant 1.6. (`yes` \| `no`). Default is no.	1.4+	No
noqualifier	Enables the `-noqualifier` argument - must be `all` or a colon separated list of packages. since Ant 1.6.	1.4+	No
includenosourcepackages	If set to true, packages that don't contain Java source but a package.html will get documented as well. since Ant 1.6.3.	all	No (default is `false`)
executable	Specify a particular `javadoc` executable to use in place of the default binary (found in the same JDK as Ant is running in). since Ant 1.6.3.	all	No
docfilessubdirs	Enables deep-copying of `doc-files` subdirectories. Defaults to false. since Ant 1.8.0.	1.4	No
excludedocfilessubdir	Colon-separated list of `doc-files`' subdirectories to exclude if `docfilessubdirs` is true. since Ant 1.8.0.	1.4	No
postProcessGeneratedJavadocs	Whether to post-process the generated javadocs in order to mitigate CVE-2013-1571. Defaults to true. Since Ant 1.9.2 There is a frame injection attack possible in javadocs generated by Oracle JDKs prior to Java7 Update 25 (details). When this flag is set to true, Ant will check whether the docs are vulnerable and will try to fix them.	1.4	No
modulesourcepath	Specify where to find module source files since Ant 1.9.14	all	No
modulesourcepathref	Specify where to find module source files by reference to a PATH defined elsewhere. since Ant 1.9.14	all	No
modulepath	Specify where to find module files since Ant 1.9.14	all	No
modulepathref	Specify where to find module files by reference to a PATH defined elsewhere. since Ant 1.9.14	all	No

Javadoc/Javadoc2

Description

Parameters

Format of the group attribute

Parameters specified as nested elements

packageset

fileset

sourcefiles

package

Parameters

excludepackage

Parameters

module

Parameters

source

Parameters

doctitle

header

footer

bottom

link

Parameters

group

Parameters

doclet

tag

Parameters

taglet

Parameters

sourcepath, classpath, bootclasspath, modulepath, modulesourcepath

arg

Example