Generic javadoc command that always generates all javadocs in a given tree?

Question

When I have to generate javadocs for a new, unfamiliar project, I find that I spend a long time trying to simply write the correct command, specifying all the packages, all the source trees, etc. It's time-consuming and error-prone: I'm probably missing some source.

So let's say I have a directory myproj, and underneath it there are a few packages (and various other resources and stuff), and under those package directories there are eventually some src/ directories, and then lots of my/awesome/java/project/package type structures.

Is there a single command that will always recurse over EVERYTHING and generate ALL javadocs in one output location? I don't care how long it takes. Something brain-dead like javadoc -d doc -sourcepath . -subpackages * would be great. Failing that, what's the easiest way to generate all javadocs, no matter what the directory structure is?

score 38 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 17 '11 at 08:29

38

Use find to find all Java source files and then send them to javadoc:

find . -type f -name "*.java" | xargs javadoc -d outputdir

answered Jan 17 '11 at 08:29

dogbane

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For extra marks, a command that works on XP? (That was very lame of me not to mention it.) Will MKS it if not possible otherwise. – Steve Bennett Jan 18 '11 at 04:43
better throw some memory arguments in there to be sure: find . -type f -name "*.java" | xargs javadoc -d outputdir -J-ms39m -J-mx40m – Steve Bennett Jan 18 '11 at 06:16
It works. But if you want to add media in your javadoc, it won't. – emilie zawadzki May 18 '16 at 14:12

score 22 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 09 '11 at 14:18

22

On Windows you can do it like this:

Generate file list:

dir /s /b *.java > file.lst

Generate javadoc:

javadoc -d outputdir @file.lst

answered Feb 09 '11 at 14:18

stian

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Excellent, native, functionally equivalent alternative to the above. – Steve Bennett Feb 10 '11 at 04:24
Is there a way to get Javadoc to generate the index list of all packages after using this method. with the simple "javadoc -d [dir] @[file]" method there is no index. – JasonRobinson Aug 30 '17 at 21:54
Any idea how to get this to work if some of the paths have spaces in the name? – Ryan Lundy Jun 21 '19 at 06:24
@RyanLundy Encapsulate all of them inside a single/double quote. For example: dir "/s dir" "/b dir" *.java > file.lst ; javadoc -d "outpit dir" "@file.lst" – harveyhans Dec 30 '22 at 19:55

Generic javadoc command that always generates all javadocs in a given tree?

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