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The catkin_doc project

Generally this package is for automatically generating documentation for ROS nodes. Documentation is generated for each python and cpp node found in a given package.

For this, it will extract all nodes, their parameters, subscribers, etc and create doc entries for them. If a comment in the code above the line creating any object exists, this is used as an initial docstring.

Installation

It's easiest to use pip to install this on a per-user basis:

# clone this repository and call from inside the cloned directory
pip install --user -e .

As pip --user installs to your local space, you might have to add ~/.local/bin to your path.

How to use:

Please consider that the generated README.md is currently put in the directory of the package being documented. If you already have a README.md not generated by this package make sure to backup that before using this.

How to create new or update documentation for a package:

catkin_doc "/path/to/your/package"

If updating a previously generated documentation any description altered by hand will not be automatically overwritten. If descriptions from code and a previously generated documentation differ, the user can choose the correct version.

How to have your docstrings extracted from code

catkin_doc encourages you to document your ROS-API elements in your source code already. For example

// Maximum distance between two points to be added to the same cluster
m_cluster_dist_euclid = m_priv_nh.param("cluster_dist_euclid", 0.13);

will result in a docstrig such as:

  • "cluster_dist_euclid" (default: 0.13)

    Maximum distance between two points to be added to the same cluster

Add your comments just above the line creating the objects

// Param variant 1
m_value = nh.param("param_name", 0.13);
// Param variant 2
nh.param("param_name", m_value, 0.13);
// Param variant 3
nh.getParam("param_name", m_value);
// Param variant 4
ros::param::get("param_name", m_value)

// Subscriber
sub = nh.subscribe("topic", 10, msgCallback);
// Publisher
pub = nh.advertise<std_msgs::Bool>("has_info", 20);

It works the same way for types not being shown here or for python. If no description is given, catkin_doc will instead create a placeholder description that will point to the respective line in code:

  • "~state" (State)

    Please add description. See test_node.py line number: 14
    Code: Publisher('~state', State, queue_size=1, latch=True)

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to Lena Holoch, who developed large parts of this project. For a full list of contributors, please see CONTRIBUTORS.md