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Using command line

To run Dokka from the command line, download the Dokka CLI runner. To generate documentation, run the following command: 

java -jar dokka-cli.jar <arguments>

Configuration options

Dokka supports the following command line arguments:

  • -outputDir - the output directory where the documentation is generated
  • -moduleName - (required) - module name used as a part of source set ID when declaring dependent source sets
  • -cacheRoot - cache directory to enable package-list caching
  • -pluginsClasspath - artifacts with Dokka plugins, separated by ;. At least dokka-base and all its dependencies must be added there
  • -pluginsConfiguration - configuration for plugins in format fqPluginName=json^^fqPluginName=json...
  • -offlineMode - do not resolve package-lists online
  • -failOnWarning - throw an exception instead of a warning
  • -globalPackageOptions - per package options added to all source sets
  • -globalLinks - external documentation links added to all source sets
  • -globalSrcLink - source links added to all source sets
  • -noSuppressObviousFunctions - don't suppress obvious functions like default toString or equals
  • -suppressInheritedMembers - suppress all inherited members that were not overriden in a given class. Eg. using it you can suppress toString or equals functions but you can't suppress componentN or copy on data class
  • -sourceSet - (repeatable) - configuration for a single source set. Following this argument, you can pass other arguments:
    • -sourceSetName - source set name as a part of source set ID when declaring dependent source sets
    • -displayName - source set name displayed in the generated documentation
    • -src - list of source files or directories separated by ;
    • -classpath - list of directories or .jar files to include in the classpath (used for resolving references) separated by ;
    • -samples - list of directories containing sample code (documentation for those directories is not generated but declarations from them can be referenced using the @sample tag) separated by ;
    • -includes - list of files containing the documentation for the module and individual packages separated by ;
    • -includeNonPublic - Deprecated, prefer using documentedVisibilities. Include protected and private code
    • -documentedVisibilities - a list of visibility modifiers (separated by ;) that should be documented. Overrides includeNonPublic. Default is PUBLIC. Possible values: PUBLIC, PRIVATE, PROTECTED, INTERNAL (Kotlin-specific), PACKAGE (Java-specific package-private)
    • -skipDeprecated - if set, deprecated elements are not included in the generated documentation
    • -reportUndocumented - warn about undocumented members
    • -noSkipEmptyPackages - create index pages for empty packages
    • -perPackageOptions - list of package options in format matchingRegex,-deprecated,-privateApi,+reportUndocumented;+visibility:PRIVATE;matchingRegex, ..., separated by ;
    • -links - list of external documentation links in format url^packageListUrl^^url2..., separated by ;
    • -srcLink - mapping between a source directory and a Web site for browsing the code in format <path>=<url>[#lineSuffix]
    • -noStdlibLink - disable linking to online kotlin-stdlib documentation
    • -noJdkLink - disable linking to online JDK documentation
    • -jdkVersion - version of JDK to use for linking to JDK JavaDoc
    • -analysisPlatform - platform used for analysis, see the Platforms section
    • -dependentSourceSets - list of dependent source sets in format moduleName/sourceSetName, separated by ;
  • -loggingLevel - one of DEBUG, PROGRESS, INFO, WARN, ERROR. Defaults to DEBUG. Please note that this argument can't be passed in JSON.

You can also use a JSON file with Dokka configuration: 

java -jar <dokka_cli.jar> <path_to_config.json>

Applying plugins

To apply a Dokka plugin you have to provide it and all its dependencies in the pluginsClasspath parameter

Base plugin

Using CLI runner to generate default documentation requires providing all dependencies manually on classpath. For Base plugins these are:

All of them are published on maven central. Another dependencies of Base plugin (e.g. kotlinx-coroutines-core and so on) are already included in dokka-cli.jar. To get them on classpath one should add them via pluginsClasspath argument, e. g. 

java -jar dokka-cli.jar -pluginsClasspath "dokka-base.jar;dokka-analysis.jar;kotlin-analysis-compiler.jar;kotlin-analysis-intellij.jar;kotlinx-html-jvm.jar" ...

Example using JSON

To run Dokka with JSON configuration: 

java -jar dokka-cli.jar dokkaConfiguration.json
Option values of JSON correspond to Gradle ones. The content of JSON file dokkaConfiguration.json: 
{
  "moduleName": "Dokka Example",
  "moduleVersion": null,
  "outputDir": "build/dokka/html",
  "cacheRoot": null,
  "offlineMode": false,
  "sourceSets": [
    {
      "displayName": "jvm",
      "sourceSetID": {
        "scopeId": ":dokkaHtml",
        "sourceSetName": "main"
      },
      "classpath": [
        "libs/kotlin-stdlib-1.6.21.jar",
        "libs/kotlin-stdlib-common-1.6.21.jar"
      ],
      "sourceRoots": [
        "/home/Vadim.Mishenev/dokka/examples/cli/src/main/kotlin"
      ],
      "dependentSourceSets": [],
      "samples": [],
      "includes": [
        "Module.md"
      ],
      "includeNonPublic": false,
      "documentedVisibilities": ["PUBLIC", "PRIVATE", "PROTECTED", "INTERNAL", "PACKAGE"],
      "reportUndocumented": false,
      "skipEmptyPackages": true,
      "skipDeprecated": false,
      "jdkVersion": 8,
      "sourceLinks": [
        {
          "localDirectory": "/home/Vadim.Mishenev/dokka/examples/cli/src/main/kotlin",
          "remoteUrl": "https://github.com/Kotlin/dokka/tree/master/examples/gradle/dokka-gradle-example/src/main/kotlin",
          "remoteLineSuffix": "#L"
        }
      ],
      "perPackageOptions": [],
      "externalDocumentationLinks": [
        {
          "url": "https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/",
          "packageListUrl": "https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/package-list"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://kotlinlang.org/api/latest/jvm/stdlib/",
          "packageListUrl": "https://kotlinlang.org/api/latest/jvm/stdlib/package-list"
        }
      ],
      "noStdlibLink": false,
      "noJdkLink": false,
      "suppressedFiles": [],
      "analysisPlatform": "jvm"
    }
  ],
  "pluginsClasspath": [
    "plugins/dokka-base-1.6.21.jar",
    "libs/kotlinx-html-jvm-0.7.3.jar",
    "libs/dokka-analysis-1.6.21.jar",
    "libs/kotlin-analysis-intellij-1.6.21.jar",
    "libs/kotlin-analysis-compiler-1.6.21.jar"
  ],
  "pluginsConfiguration": [
    {
      "fqPluginName": "org.jetbrains.dokka.base.DokkaBase",
      "serializationFormat": "JSON",
      "values": "{\"separateInheritedMembers\":false,\"footerMessage\":\"© 2021 Copyright\"}"
    }
  ],
  "modules": [],
  "failOnWarning": false,
  "delayTemplateSubstitution": false,
  "suppressObviousFunctions": true,
  "includes": [],
  "suppressInheritedMembers": false
}