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authorMauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@s-opensource.com>2017-12-18 10:30:04 -0200
committerJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>2017-12-21 13:41:46 -0700
commitfc275bf3b99d2c78e1c132d2199be1cb6a701905 (patch)
tree0e88b84d22db6fc158668a46466c9937b029313c /Documentation/doc-guide
parent01f2c18073e284397f45c94b26e65fd1b66776e4 (diff)
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docs: kernel-doc.rst: improve function documentation section
Move its contents to happen earlier and improve the description of return values, adding a subsection to it. Most of the contents there came from kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt. Signed-off-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@s-opensource.com> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/doc-guide')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/doc-guide/kernel-doc.rst100
1 files changed, 61 insertions, 39 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/doc-guide/kernel-doc.rst b/Documentation/doc-guide/kernel-doc.rst
index 7cf58c3489de..3aac228fc346 100644
--- a/Documentation/doc-guide/kernel-doc.rst
+++ b/Documentation/doc-guide/kernel-doc.rst
@@ -197,6 +197,67 @@ Example::
int d;
};
+Function documentation
+----------------------
+
+The general format of a function and function-like macro kernel-doc comment is::
+
+ /**
+ * function_name() - Brief description of function.
+ * @arg1: Describe the first argument.
+ * @arg2: Describe the second argument.
+ * One can provide multiple line descriptions
+ * for arguments.
+ *
+ * A longer description, with more discussion of the function function_name()
+ * that might be useful to those using or modifying it. Begins with an
+ * empty comment line, and may include additional embedded empty
+ * comment lines.
+ *
+ * The longer description may have multiple paragraphs.
+ *
+ * Return: Describe the return value of foobar.
+ *
+ * The return value description can also have multiple paragraphs, and should
+ * be placed at the end of the comment block.
+ */
+
+The brief description following the function name may span multiple lines, and
+ends with an argument description, a blank comment line, or the end of the
+comment block.
+
+Return values
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The return value, if any, should be described in a dedicated section
+named ``Return``.
+
+.. note::
+
+ #) The multi-line descriptive text you provide does *not* recognize
+ line breaks, so if you try to format some text nicely, as in::
+
+ * Return:
+ * 0 - OK
+ * -EINVAL - invalid argument
+ * -ENOMEM - out of memory
+
+ this will all run together and produce::
+
+ Return: 0 - OK -EINVAL - invalid argument -ENOMEM - out of memory
+
+ So, in order to produce the desired line breaks, you need to use a
+ ReST list, e. g.::
+
+ * Return:
+ * * 0 - OK to runtime suspend the device
+ * * -EBUSY - Device should not be runtime suspended
+
+ #) If the descriptive text you provide has lines that begin with
+ some phrase followed by a colon, each of those phrases will be taken
+ as a new section heading, with probably won't produce the desired
+ effect.
+
Highlights and cross-references
-------------------------------
@@ -269,45 +330,6 @@ cross-references.
For further details, please refer to the `Sphinx C Domain`_ documentation.
-Function documentation
-----------------------
-
-The general format of a function and function-like macro kernel-doc comment is::
-
- /**
- * function_name() - Brief description of function.
- * @arg1: Describe the first argument.
- * @arg2: Describe the second argument.
- * One can provide multiple line descriptions
- * for arguments.
- *
- * A longer description, with more discussion of the function function_name()
- * that might be useful to those using or modifying it. Begins with an
- * empty comment line, and may include additional embedded empty
- * comment lines.
- *
- * The longer description may have multiple paragraphs.
- *
- * Return: Describe the return value of foobar.
- *
- * The return value description can also have multiple paragraphs, and should
- * be placed at the end of the comment block.
- */
-
-The brief description following the function name may span multiple lines, and
-ends with an ``@argument:`` description, a blank comment line, or the end of the
-comment block.
-
-The kernel-doc function comments describe each parameter to the function, in
-order, with the ``@argument:`` descriptions. The ``@argument:`` descriptions
-must begin on the very next line following the opening brief function
-description line, with no intervening blank comment lines. The ``@argument:``
-descriptions may span multiple lines. The continuation lines may contain
-indentation. If a function parameter is ``...`` (varargs), it should be listed
-in kernel-doc notation as: ``@...:``.
-
-The return value, if any, should be described in a dedicated section at the end
-of the comment starting with "Return:".
Structure, union, and enumeration documentation
-----------------------------------------------
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