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<title>Documenting code in Apache 2.4 - Apache HTTP Server Version 2.5</title>
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<p class="apache">Apache HTTP Server Version 2.5</p>
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<a href="https://www.apache.org/">Apache</a> &gt; <a href="https://httpd.apache.org/">HTTP Server</a> &gt; <a href="https://httpd.apache.org/docs/">Documentation</a> &gt; <a href="../">Version 2.5</a> &gt; <a href="./">Developer Documentation</a></div><div id="page-content"><div id="preamble"><h1>Documenting code in Apache 2.4</h1>
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    <p>Apache 2.4 uses <a href="https://www.doxygen.nl/">Doxygen</a> to
    document the APIs and global variables in the code. This will explain
    the basics of how to document using Doxygen.</p>
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<h2 id="brief">Brief Description <a title="Permanent link" href="#brief" class="permalink">&para;</a></h2>
    <p>To start a documentation block, use <code>/**</code><br>
    To end a documentation block, use <code>*/</code></p>

    <p>In the middle of the block, there are multiple tags we can
    use:</p>

    <div class="example"><p><code>
      Description of this functions purpose<br>
      @param parameter_name description<br>
      @return description<br>
      @deffunc signature of the function<br>
    </code></p></div>

    <p>The <code>deffunc</code> is not always necessary. DoxyGen does not
    have a full parser  in it, so any prototype that use a macro in the
    return type declaration is too complex for scandoc. Those functions
    require a <code>deffunc</code>. An example (using &amp;gt; rather
    than &gt;):</p>

    <div class="example"><p><code>
      /**<br>
 &nbsp;* return the final element of the pathname<br>
 &nbsp;* @param pathname The path to get the final element of<br>
 &nbsp;* @return the final element of the path<br>
 &nbsp;* @tip Examples:<br>
 &nbsp;* &lt;pre&gt;<br>
 &nbsp;*                 "/foo/bar/gum"   -&amp;gt; "gum"<br>
 &nbsp;*                 "/foo/bar/gum/"  -&amp;gt; ""<br>
 &nbsp;*                 "gum"            -&amp;gt; "gum"<br>
 &nbsp;*                 "wi\\n32\\stuff" -&amp;gt; "stuff"<br>
 &nbsp;* &lt;/pre&gt;<br>
 &nbsp;* @deffunc const char * ap_filename_of_pathname(const char *pathname)<br>
 &nbsp;*/
    </code></p></div>

    <p>At the top of the header file, always include:</p>
    <div class="example"><p><code>
      /**<br>
 &nbsp;* @package Name of library header<br>
 &nbsp;*/
    </code></p></div>

    <p>Doxygen uses a new HTML file for each package. The HTML files are named
    {Name_of_library_header}.html, so try to be concise with your names.</p>

    <p>For a further discussion of the possibilities please refer to
    <a href="https://www.doxygen.nl/">the Doxygen site</a>.</p>
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