Package epydoc

source code

Automatic Python reference documentation generator. Epydoc processes Python modules and docstrings to generate formatted API documentation, in the form of HTML pages. Epydoc can be used via a command-line interface (epydoc.cli) and a graphical interface (epydoc.gui). Both interfaces let the user specify a set of modules or other objects to document, and produce API documentation using the following steps:

1. Extract basic information about the specified objects, and objects that are related to them (such as the values defined by a module). This can be done via introspection, parsing, or both:
   • Introspection imports the objects, and examines them directly using Python's introspection mechanisms.
   • Parsing reads the Python source files that define the objects, and extracts information from those files.
2. Combine and process that information.
   • Merging: Merge the information obtained from introspection & parsing each object into a single structure.
   • Linking: Replace any "pointers" that were created for imported variables with the documentation that they point to.
   • Naming: Assign unique canonical names to each of the specified objects, and any related objects.
   • Docstrings: Parse the docstrings of each of the specified objects.
   • Inheritance: Add variables to classes for any values that they inherit from their base classes.
3. Generate output. Output can be generated in a variety of formats:
   • An HTML webpage.
   • A LaTeX document (which can be rendered as a PDF file)
   • A plaintext description.

Overview of epydoc's architecture -- The boxes represent steps in epydoc's processing chain. Arrows are annotated with the data classes used to communicate between steps. The lines along the right side mark what portions of the processing chain are initiated by build_doc_index() and cli(). Click on any item to see its documentation.

Package Organization

The epydoc package contains the following subpackages and modules:

Package Tree for epydoc

The user interfaces are provided by the gui and cli modules. The apidoc module defines the basic data types used to record information about Python objects. The programmatic interface to epydoc is provided by docbuilder. Docstring markup parsing is handled by the markup package, and output generation is handled by the docwriter package. See the submodule list for more information about the submodules and subpackages.