OCAMLDOC(1) General Commands Manual OCAMLDOC(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

ocamldoc - The OCaml documentation generator

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**ocamldoc** \[ *options* ] *filename* ...

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

The OCaml documentation generator [**ocamldoc**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/ocamldoc.1) generates documentation from special comments embedded in source files. The comments used by **ocamldoc** are of the form *(\** ... \*)* and follow the format described in the *The OCaml user's manual*.

**ocamldoc** can produce documentation in various formats: HTML, LaTeX, TeXinfo, Unix man pages, and [**dot**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/dot.1) dependency graphs. Moreover, users can add their own custom generators.

In this manpage, we use the word *element* to refer to any of the following parts of an OCaml source file: a type declaration, a value, a module, an exception, a module type, a type constructor, a record field, a class, a class type, a class method, a class value or a class inheritance clause.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

The following command-line options determine the format for the generated documentation generated by [**ocamldoc**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/ocamldoc.1).

## [Options for choosing the output format](#Options_for_choosing_the_output_format)

[**-html**](#html)

Generate documentation in HTML default format. The generated HTML pages are stored in the current directory, or in the directory specified with the **-d** option. You can customize the style of the generated pages by editing the generated *style.css* file, or by providing your own style sheet using option **-css-style**. The file *style.css* is not generated if it already exists.

[**-latex**](#latex)

Generate documentation in LaTeX default format. The generated LaTeX document is saved in file *ocamldoc.out*, or in the file specified with the **-o** option. The document uses the style file *ocamldoc.sty*. This file is generated when using the **-latex** option, if it does not already exist. You can change this file to customize the style of your LaTeX documentation.

[**-texi**](#texi)

Generate documentation in TeXinfo default format. The generated LaTeX document is saved in file *ocamldoc.out*, or in the file specified with the **-o** option.

[**-man**](#man)

Generate documentation as a set of Unix man pages. The generated pages are stored in the current directory, or in the directory specified with the **-d** option.

[**-dot**](#dot)

Generate a dependency graph for the toplevel modules, in a format suitable for displaying and processing by [*dot*(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/dot.1). The [*dot*(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/dot.1) tool is available from *https://graphviz.org/*. The textual representation of the graph is written to the file *ocamldoc.out*, or to the file specified with the **-o** option. Use **dot ocamldoc.out** to display it.

[**-g file**](#g)

Dynamically load the given file (which extension usually is .cmo or .cma), which defines a custom documentation generator. If the given file is a simple one and does not exist in the current directory, then **ocamldoc** looks for it in the custom generators default directory, and in the directories specified with the **-i** option.

[**-customdir**](#customdir)

Display the custom generators default directory.

[**-i directory**](#i)

Add the given directory to the path where to look for custom generators.

## [General options](#General_options)

[**-d dir**](#d)

Generate files in directory *dir*, rather than the current directory.

[**-dump file**](#dump)

Dump collected information into *file*. This information can be read with the **-load** option in a subsequent invocation of [**ocamldoc**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/ocamldoc.1).

[**-hide modules**](#hide)

Hide the given complete module names in the generated documentation. *modules* is a list of complete module names are separated by commas (,), without blanks. For instance: *Stdlib,M2.M3*.

[**-inv-merge-ml-mli**](#inv)

Reverse the precedence of implementations and interfaces when merging. All elements in implementation files are kept, and the **-m** option indicates which parts of the comments in interface files are merged with the comments in implementation files.

[**-keep-code**](#keep)

Always keep the source code for values, methods and instance variables, when available. The source code is always kept when a .ml file is given, but is by default discarded when a .mli is given. This option allows the source code to be always kept.

[**-load file**](#load)

Load information from *file*, which has been produced by **ocamldoc -dump**. Several **-load** options can be given.

[**-m flags**](#m)

Specify merge options between interfaces and implementations. *flags* can be one or several of the following characters:

**d** merge description

**a** merge @author

**v** merge @version

**l** merge @see

**s** merge @since

**o** merge @deprecated

**p** merge @param

**e** merge @raise

**r** merge @return

**A** merge everything

[**-no-custom-tags**](#no)

Do not allow custom @-tags.

[**-no-stop**](#no~2)

Keep elements placed after the **(\*\*/\*\*)** special comment.

[**-o file**](#o)

Output the generated documentation to *file* instead of *ocamldoc.out*. This option is meaningful only in conjunction with the **-latex**, **-texi**, or **-dot** options.

[**-open module**](#open)

Opens *module* before typing.

[**-pp command**](#pp)

Pipe sources through preprocessor *command*.

[**-ppx command**](#ppx)

Pipe abstract syntax tree through preprocessor *command*.

[**-show-missed-crossref**](#show)

Show missed cross-reference opportunities.

[**-sort**](#sort)

Sort the list of top-level modules before generating the documentation.

[**-stars**](#stars)

Remove blank characters until the first asterisk ('\*') in each line of comments.

[**-t title**](#t)

Use *title* as the title for the generated documentation.

[**-text file**](#text)

Consider *file* as a .txt file.

[**-intro file**](#intro)

Use content of *file* as **ocamldoc** text to use as introduction (HTML, LaTeX and TeXinfo only). For HTML, the file is used to create the whole "index.html" file.

[**-v**](#v)

Verbose mode. Display progress information.

[**-version**](#version)

Print version string and exit.

[**-vnum**](#vnum)

Print short version number and exit.

[**-warn-error**](#warn)

Treat **ocamldoc** warnings as errors.

**-hide-warnings**

Do not print **ocamldoc** warnings.

[**-help** or **--help**](#help)

Display a short usage summary and exit.

## [Type-checking options](#Type-checking_options)

[**ocamldoc**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/ocamldoc.1) calls the OCaml type-checker to obtain type information. The following options impact the type-checking phase. They have the same meaning as for the [**ocamlc**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/ocamlc.1) and **ocamlopt**(1) commands.

[**-I directory**](#I)

Add *directory* to the list of directories search for compiled interface files (.cmi files).

[**-nolabels**](#nolabels)

Ignore non-optional labels in types.

[**-rectypes**](#rectypes)

Allow arbitrary recursive types. (See the **-rectypes** option to [**ocamlc**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/ocamlc.1).)

## [Options for generating HTML pages](#Options_for_generating_HTML_pages)

The following options apply in conjunction with the **-html** option:

[**-all-params**](#all)

Display the complete list of parameters for functions and methods.

[**-charset s**](#charset)

Add information about character encoding being *s* (default is **iso-8859-1**).

[**-css-style filename**](#css)

Use *filename* as the Cascading Style Sheet file.

[**-colorize-code**](#colorize)

Colorize the OCaml code enclosed in \[ ] and \\{\[ ]\\}, using colors to emphasize keywords, etc. If the code fragments are not syntactically correct, no color is added.

[**-index-only**](#index)

Generate only index files.

[**-short-functors**](#short)

Use a short form to display functors: **module M : functor (A:Module) -> functor (B:Module2) -> sig .. end** is displayed as **module M (A:Module) (B:Module2) : sig .. end**.

## [Options for generating LaTeX files](#Options_for_generating_LaTeX_files)

The following options apply in conjunction with the **-latex** option:

**-latex-value-prefix prefix**

Give a prefix to use for the labels of the values in the generated LaTeX document. The default prefix is the empty string. You can also use the options **-latex-type-prefix**, **-latex-exception-prefix**, **-latex-module-prefix**, **-latex-module-type-prefix**, **-latex-class-prefix**, **-latex-class-type-prefix**, **-latex-attribute-prefix**, and **-latex-method-prefix**.

These options are useful when you have, for example, a type and a value with the same name. If you do not specify prefixes, LaTeX will complain about multiply defined labels.

[**-latextitle n,style**](#latextitle)

Associate style number *n* to the given LaTeX sectioning command *style*, e.g. **section**or**subsection**. (LaTeX only.) This is useful when including the generated document in another LaTeX document, at a given sectioning level. The default association is 1 for section, 2 for subsection, 3 for subsubsection, 4 for paragraph and 5 for subparagraph.

[**-noheader**](#noheader)

Suppress header in generated documentation.

[**-notoc**](#notoc)

Do not generate a table of contents.

[**-notrailer**](#notrailer)

Suppress trailer in generated documentation.

[**-sepfiles**](#sepfiles)

Generate one .tex file per toplevel module, instead of the global *ocamldoc.out* file.

## [Options for generating TeXinfo files](#Options_for_generating_TeXinfo_files)

The following options apply in conjunction with the **-texi** option:

[**-esc8**](#esc8)

Escape accented characters in Info files.

[**-info-entry**](#info)

Specify Info directory entry.

[**-info-section**](#info~2)

Specify section of Info directory.

[**-noheader**](#noheader~2)

Suppress header in generated documentation.

[**-noindex**](#noindex)

Do not build index for Info files.

[**-notrailer**](#notrailer~2)

Suppress trailer in generated documentation.

## [Options for generating dot graphs](#Options_for_generating_dot_graphs)

The following options apply in conjunction with the **-dot** option:

**-dot-colors colors**

Specify the colors to use in the generated dot code. When generating module dependencies, [**ocamldoc**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/ocamldoc.1) uses different colors for modules, depending on the directories in which they reside. When generating types dependencies, [**ocamldoc**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/ocamldoc.1) uses different colors for types, depending on the modules in which they are defined. *colors* is a list of color names separated by commas (,), as in **Red,Blue,Green**. The available colors are the ones supported by the [**dot**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/dot.1) tool.

**-dot-include-all**

Include all modules in the [**dot**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/dot.1) output, not only modules given on the command line or loaded with the **-load** option.

**-dot-reduce**

Perform a transitive reduction of the dependency graph before outputting the dot code. This can be useful if there are a lot of transitive dependencies that clutter the graph.

**-dot-types**

Output dot code describing the type dependency graph instead of the module dependency graph.

## [Options for generating man files](#Options_for_generating_man_files)

The following options apply in conjunction with the **-man** option:

**-man-mini**

Generate man pages only for modules, module types, classes and class types, instead of pages for all elements.

**-man-suffix suffix**

Set the suffix used for generated man filenames. Default is o, as in *List.o*.

**-man-section section**

Set the section number used for generated man filenames. Default is 3.

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[**ocaml**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/ocaml.1), [**ocamlc**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/ocamlc.1), [**ocamlopt**(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/ocaml-4/ocamlopt.1).  
*The OCaml user's manual*, chapter "The documentation generator".

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Document: ocamldoc(1) from ocaml-4 4.14.4-r3 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml