docs/source/developers/documentation.rst

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.. to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
.. "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
.. with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at

..   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

.. Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
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.. specific language governing permissions and limitations
.. under the License.

.. _building-docs:

Building the Documentation
==========================

Prerequisites
-------------

The documentation build process uses `Doxygen <http://www.doxygen.nl/>`_ and
`Sphinx <http://www.sphinx-doc.org/>`_ along with a few extensions.

If you're using Conda, the required software can be installed in a single line:

.. code-block:: shell

   conda install -c conda-forge --file=ci/conda_env_sphinx.yml

Otherwise, you'll first need to install `Doxygen <http://www.doxygen.nl/>`_
yourself (for example from your distribution's official repositories, if
using Linux).  Then you can install the Python-based requirements with the
following command:

.. code-block:: shell

   pip install -r docs/requirements.txt

Building
--------

.. note::

   If you are building the documentation on Windows, not all sections
   may build properly.

These two steps are mandatory and must be executed in order.

#. Process the C++ API using Doxygen

   .. code-block:: shell

      pushd cpp/apidoc
      doxygen
      popd

#. Build the complete documentation using Sphinx.

   .. note::

      This step requires the pyarrow library is installed
      in your python environment.  One way to accomplish
      this is to follow the build instructions at :ref:`python-development`
      and then run ``python setup.py install`` in arrow/python
      (it is best to do this in a dedicated conda/virtual environment).

   .. code-block:: shell

      pushd docs
      make html
      popd

.. note::

   Note that building the documentation may fail if your build of pyarrow is
   not sufficiently comprehensive. Portions of the Python API documentation
   will also not build without CUDA support having been built.

After these steps are completed, the documentation is rendered in HTML
format in ``docs/_build/html``.  In particular, you can point your browser
at ``docs/_build/html/index.html`` to read the docs and review any changes
you made.

Building with Docker
--------------------

You can use :ref:`Archery <archery>` to build the documentation within a
Docker container.

.. code-block:: shell

  archery docker run ubuntu-docs

The final output is located under ``docs/_build/html``.

.. seealso::

   :ref:`docker-builds`.