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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.

This task works seamlessly between different javadoc versions (1.1, 1.2 and 1.4), with the obvious restriction that the 1.2 attributes will be ignored if run in a 1.1 VM.

NOTE: since javadoc calls System.exit(), javadoc cannot be run inside the same VM as 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, 1.1 means available if your current Java VM is a 1.1 VM, 1.2 for either 1.2 or 1.3 and 1.4 for a 1.4 Java VM. 1.2+ means any VM of at least version 1.2.


next up previous contents index
Next: Parameters Up: Javadoc/Javadoc2 Previous: Javadoc/Javadoc2   Contents   Index
Andrew Marlow 2003-07-08