At its most basic level, JSDoc is used like so:
/path/to/jsdoc yourSourceCodeFile.js anotherSourceCodeFile.js ...
where ... are paths to other files to generate documentation for.
Additionally, one may provide the path to a Markdown file (ending in ".md") or a file named "README", and this will be added to the documentation on the front page. See these instructions.
JSDoc supports a number of command-line options, many of which have both long and short forms. Alternatively, the command-line options may be specified in a configuration file given to JSDoc. The command-line options are:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-a <value>, --access <value> | Only display symbols with the given access property: private, protected, public, or undefined, or all for all access levels. By default, all except private symbols are shown. |
-c <value>, --configure <value> | The path to a JSDoc configuration file. Defaults to conf.json or conf.json.EXAMPLE in the directory where JSDoc is installed. |
-d <value>, --destination <value> | The path to the output folder for the generated documentation. For JSDoc's built-in Haruki template, use console to dump data to the console. Defaults to ./out. |
--debug | Log information that can help debug issues in JSDoc itself. |
-e <value>, --encoding <value> | Assume this encoding when reading all source files. Defaults to utf8. |
-h, --help | Display information about JSDoc's command-line options, then exit. |
--match <value> | Only run tests whose names contain value. |
--nocolor | When running tests, do not use color in the console output. On Windows, this option is enabled by default. |
-p, --private | Include symbols marked with the @private tag in the generated documentation. By default, private symbols are not included. |
-P, --package | The package.json file that contains the project name, version, and other details. Defaults to the first package.json file found in the source paths. |
--pedantic | Treat errors as fatal errors, and treat warnings as errors. Defaults to false. |
-q <value>, --query <value> | A query string to parse and store in the global variable env.opts.query. Example: foo=bar&baz=true. |
-r, --recurse | Recurse into subdirectories when scanning for source files and tutorials. |
-R, --readme | The README.md file to include in the generated documentation. Defaults to the first README.md file found in the source paths. |
-t <value>, --template <value> | The path to the template to use for generating output. Defaults to templates/default, JSDoc's built-in default template. |
-T, --test | Run JSDoc's test suite, and print the results to the console. |
-u <value>, --tutorials <value> | Directory in which JSDoc should search for tutorials. If omitted, no tutorial pages will be generated. See the tutorial instructions for more information. |
-v, --version | Displays JSDoc's version number, then exits. |
--verbose | Log detailed information to the console as JSDoc runs. Defaults to false. |
-X, --explain | Dump all doclets to the console in JSON format, then exit. |
Examples
Generate documentation for files in the ./src directory, using the configuration file /path/to/my/conf.json, and save the output in the ./docs directory:
/path/to/jsdoc src -r -c /path/to/my/conf.json -d docsRun all JSDoc tests whose names include the word tag, and log information about each test:
/path/to/jsdoc -T --match tag --verbose