ExDoc

ExDoc is a tool to generate documentation for your Elixir projects. In case you are looking for documentation for Elixir itself, check out Elixir's website.

Using ExDoc with Mix

To use ExDoc in your Mix projects, first add ExDoc as a dependency:

def deps do
  [{:earmark, "~> 0.1", only: :dev},
   {:ex_doc, "~> 0.11", only: :dev}]
end

After adding ExDoc as a dependency, run mix deps.get to install it.

ExDoc will automatically pull in information from your project, like the application and version. However, you may want to set :name, :source_url and :homepage_url to have a nicer output from ExDoc, for example:

def project do
  [app: :repo,
   version: "0.1.0-dev",
   name: "REPO",
   source_url: "https://github.com/USER/REPO",
   homepage_url: "http://YOUR_PROJECT_HOMEPAGE",
   deps: deps,
   docs: [logo: "path/to/logo.png",
          extras: ["README.md", "CONTRIBUTING.md"]]]
end

Now you are ready to generate your project documentation with mix docs.

To see all options available when generating docs, run mix help docs. You may have to do mix docs or mix deps.compile first.

Using ExDoc via command line

You can ExDoc via the command line as follows:

1. First clone and compile it:

2. $ git clone https://github.com/elixir-lang/ex_doc.git
   $ cd ex_doc
   $ mix do deps.get, compile

3. Then you are ready to use it in your projects. First move into your project directory and ensure it is compiled:

   $ cd PATH_TO_YOUR_PROJECT
   $ mix compile

4. Next invoke the ex_doc executable from your project:

   $ PATH_TO_YOUR_EXDOC/bin/ex_doc "PROJECT_NAME" "PROJECT_VERSION" path/to/project/ebin -m "PROJECT_MODULE" -u "https://github.com/GITHUB_USER/GITHUB_REPO" -l path/to/logo.png

For example, here are some acceptable values:

PROJECT_NAME    => Ecto
PROJECT_VERSION => 0.1.0
PROJECT_MODULE  => Ecto (the main module provided by the library)
GITHUB_USER     => elixir-lang
GITHUB_REPO     => ecto

Changing the Markdown tool

In the examples above, we have used Earmark to convert Markdown to HTML. If you prefer, you can also use pandoc, hoedown (in C), or cmark (in C).

Pandoc

Install pandoc using whichever means is appropriate for your system. Odds are good it is available via whatever package manager you have available to you.

Update your project config to use pandoc:

config :ex_doc, :markdown_processor, ExDoc.Markdown.Pandoc

Hoedown

Hoedown is a standards compliant Markdown parser written in C. To use hoedown, add the elixir NIF wrapper markdown as a dependency to your project:

{:markdown, github: "devinus/markdown"}

Update your project config to use hoedown:

config :ex_doc, :markdown_processor, ExDoc.Markdown.Hoedown

Cmark

Cmark is a CommonMark parser written in C. To use cmark add the elixir NIF wrapper cmark.ex as a dependency to your project:

{:markdown, github: "devinus/markdown"}

Update your project config to use Cmark:

config :ex_doc, :markdown_processor, ExDoc.Markdown.Cmark

License

ExDoc source code is released under Apache 2 License. The generated contents, however, are under different licenses based on projects used to help render html, including css, js and other assets.

Check the LICENSE file for more information.