Documenting modules with Puppet Strings
Produce complete, user-friendly module documentation by using Puppet Strings. Strings uses tags and code comments, along with the source code, to generate documentation for a module's classes, defined types, functions, tasks, plans, and resource types and providers.
If you are a module author, add descriptive tags and comments with the code for each element (class, defined type, function, or plan) in your module. Strings extracts information from the module's Puppet and Ruby code, such as data types and attribute defaults. Whenever you update code, update your documentation comments at the same time. Both module users and authors can generate module documentation with Strings. Even if the module contains no code comments, Strings generates minimal documentation based on the information it can extract from the code.
HTML output, which you can read in any web browser, includes the module README and reference documentation for all classes, defined types, functions, tasks, task plans, and resource types.
JSON output includes the reference documentation only, and writes it to either
STDOUT
or to a file.Markdown output includes the reference documentation only, and writes the information to a
REFERENCE.md
file.
Puppet Strings is based on the YARD Ruby documentation tool. To learn more about YARD, see the YARD documentation.
Install Puppet Strings
Before you can generate module documentation, you must install the Puppet Strings gem.
Ruby 2.1.9 or newer.
Puppet 4.0 or newer.
The
yard
Ruby gem.
-
If you don't have the
yard
gem installed yet, install it by runninggem install yard
-
Install the
puppet-strings
gem by runninggem install puppet-strings
Generating documentation with strings
Generate documentation in HTML, JSON, or Markdown by running Puppet Strings.
manifests/
functions/
lib/
types/
tasks/
plans/
doc/
directory. You can open and read the generated HTML
documentation in any browser. If you specify JSON or Markdown output, documentation
includes the reference information only. Strings writes
Markdown output to a REFERENCE.md
file and sends JSON output to STDOUT
, but you can specify a custom file
destination for Markdown and JSON output.Generate and view documentation in HTML
To generate HTML documentation for a Puppet module, run Strings from that module's directory.
-
Change directory into the module by running
cd /modules/<MODULE_NAME>
-
Generate documentation with the
puppet strings
command:
Strings outputs HTML to the doc/
directory in the module. To view the
generated HTML documentation for a module, open the index.html
file in the module's doc/
folder. To view
HTML documentation for all of your local modules, run puppet strings server
from any directory.
This command serves documentation for all modules in the module path at http://localhost:8808
.
To learn more about the modulepath, see the modulepath
documentation.
Generate and view documentation in Markdown
To generate reference documentation in Markdown, specify
the markdown
format when you
run Puppet Strings.
The reference documentation includes descriptions, usage details, and parameter information for classes, defined types, functions, tasks, plans, and resource types and providers.
Strings generates Markdown output as a REFERENCE.md
file in the
main module directory, but you can specify a different filename or location with
command line options.
View the Markdown file by opening it in a text editor or Markdown viewer.
Generate documentation in JSON
To generate reference documentation as JSON output to a
file or to standard output, specify the json
format when you run Strings.
Generate JSON output if
you want to use the documentation in a custom application that reads JSON. By
default, Strings prints JSON output to STDOUT
. For details
about Strings JSON output, see the Strings JSON schema.
Publish module documentation to GitHub Pages
To make your module documentation available on GitHub Pages, generate and publish HTML documentation with a Strings Rake task.
strings:gh_pages:update
Rake task is available in the puppet-strings/tasks
directory.
This Rake task keeps the gh-pages
branch up to date with your current code, performing the
following actions:Creates a
doc
directory in the root of your project, if it doesn't already exist.Creates a
gh-pages
branch of the current repository, if it doesn't already exist.Checks out the
gh-pages
branch of the current repository.Generates Strings HTML documentation.
Commits the documentation file and pushes it to the
gh-pages
branch with the--force
flag.
-
If this is the first time you are running this
task, you must first update your Gemfile and Rakefile.
-
Add the following to your Gemfile to use
puppet-strings:
ruby gem 'puppet-strings'
-
Add the following to your Rakefile to use
the
puppet-strings
tasks:ruby require 'puppet-strings/tasks'
-
Add the following to your Gemfile to use
puppet-strings:
-
To generate, push, and publish your module's Strings documentation, run
strings:gh_pages:update
The documentation is published after the task pushes the updated documentation to GitHub Pages.
Puppet Strings command reference
Modify the behavior of Puppet Strings by specifying command actions and options.
puppet strings
command
Generates module documentation based on code and code
comments. By default, running puppet
strings
generates HTML documentation for a module into a ./doc/
directory within that module.
To pass options or arguments, such as specifying Markdown or JSON
output, use the generate
action.
puppet strings [--generate] [--server]
Action | Description |
---|---|
generate |
Generates documentation with any specified parameters, including format and output location. |
server |
Serves documentation locally at http://localhost:8808 for all
modules in the modulepath. For information about the modulepath, see the modulepath documentation. |
puppet strings generate
action
Generates documentation with any specified parameters, including format and output location.
puppet strings generate [--format <FORMAT>][--out <DESTINATION>] [<ARGUMENTS>]
For example: puppet strings generate --format markdown --out docs/info.md
puppet strings generate manifest1.pp manifest2.pp
Option | Description | Values | Default |
---|---|---|---|
--format
|
Specifies a format for documentation. | Markdown, JSON | If not specified, outputs HTML documentation. |
--out
|
Specifies an output location for documentation. | A valid directory location and filename. | If not specified, outputs to default locations
depending on format:
|
Filenames or directory paths | Outputs documentation for only specified files or directories. | Valid filenames or directory paths | If not specified, outputs documentation for the entire module. |
--debug , -d
|
Logs debug information. | None. | If not specified, does not log debug information. |
--help
|
Displays help documentation for the command. | None. | If specified, returns help information. |
--markup
<FORMAT>
|
The markup format to use for documentation |
|
If no --format is specified, outputs HTML. |
--verbose , -v
|
Logs verbosely. | None. | If not specified, logs basic information. |
puppet strings server
action
Serves documentation locally at http://localhost:8808
for all modules in
the module path.
Usage:
puppet strings server [--markup <FORMAT>][[module_name]...][--modulepath <PATH>]
For example:
puppet strings server --modulepath path/to/modules
puppet strings server concat
Option | Description | Values | Default |
---|---|---|---|
--markup
<FORMAT>
|
The markup format to use for documentation |
|
If no --format is specified, outputs HTML. |
--debug , -d
|
Logs debug information. | None. | If not specified, does not log debug information. |
--help
|
Displays help documentation for the command. | None. | If specified, returns help information. |
Module name
|
Generates documentation for the named module only. | A valid module name. | If not specified, generates documentation for all modules in the modulepath. |
--modulepath
|
Puppet option for setting the modulepath. | A valid path. | Defaults to the module path specified in the puppet.conf
file. |
--verbose , -v
|
Logs verbosely. | None. | If not specified, logs basic information. |
Available Strings tags
@author
- List the author or authors of a class, module, or
method.
# @author Foo Bar class MyClass; end
-
@api
- Describes the resource as belonging to the private or public
API. To mark a module element, such as a class, as private, specify as private:
# @api private
-
@example
- Shows an example snippet of code for an object. The first line is an optional title, and any subsequent lines are automatically formatted as a code snippet. Use for specific examples of a given component. Use one example tag per example.
-
@param
- Documents a parameter with a given name, type and optional description.
-
@!puppet.type.param
- Documents dynamic type parameters. See the documenting resource types in the Strings style guide for detailed information.
-
@!puppet.type.property
- Documents dynamic type properties. See the documenting resource types in the Strings style guide for detailed information.
-
@option
- Used with a
@param
tag to defines what optional parameters the user can pass in an options hash to the method. For example:# @param [Hash] opts # List of options # @option opts [String] :option1 # option 1 in the hash # @option opts [Array] :option2 # option 2 in the hash
-
@raise
- Documents any exceptions that can be raised by the given
component. For
example:
# @raise PuppetError this error is raised if x
-
@return
- Describes the return value (and type or types) of a method. You
can list multiple return tags for a method if the method has distinct return cases. In
this case, begin each case with "if". For example:
# An example 4.x function. Puppet::Functions.create_function(:example) do # @param first The first parameter. # @param second The second parameter. # @return [String] If second argument is less than 10, the name of one item. # @return [Array] If second argument is greater than 10, a list of item names. # @example Calling the function. # example('hi', 10) dispatch :example do param 'String', :first param 'Integer', :second end # ... end
-
@see
- Adds "see also" references. Accepts URLs or other code objects with an optional description at the end. The URL or object is automatically linked by YARD and does not need markup formatting. Appears in the generated documentation as a "See Also" section. Use one tag per reference, such as a website or related method.
-
@since
- Lists the version in which the object was first added. Strings does not verify that the specified version exists. You are responsible for providing accurate information.
-
@summary
- A description of the documented item, of 140 characters or fewer.