qt5base-lts/doc
Joerg Bornemann 6681fa7b73 CMake: Allow docs generation without installing in top-level builds
This patch allows in top-level prefix builds to build Qt and to generate
the documentation without running cmake --install first.

For top-level builds we now always use the qdoc binary from the build
directory, not the installation directory.

We also have to copy the global doc files to the build directory to make
them accessible to the generate_docs target.

Change-Id: I2251603418fc3df9a21c7f2892789e9ff6c8cc21
Reviewed-by: Alexandru Croitor <alexandru.croitor@qt.io>
2020-10-23 11:36:48 +02:00
..
config Doc: Replace example file lists with links to code.qt.io 2019-05-03 14:24:42 +02:00
global Remove usage of deprecated QStandardPaths::DataLocation 2020-10-23 11:36:47 +02:00
src Doc: Remove unused porting guide document 2020-09-16 18:32:05 +02:00
CMakeLists.txt CMake: Allow docs generation without installing in top-level builds 2020-10-23 11:36:48 +02:00
doc.pro Doc: Add doc/config directory to installed docs 2019-08-13 13:38:13 +02:00
README

Qt 5 Documentation
==================

New in Qt 5.0, each module has its own documentation package. The documentation
resides in the module sources as well as the configuration files needed to build
the module documentation. The main Qt 5.0 Reference Documentation resides in the
qtdoc repository.

There are two ways to build Qt documentation:
* run "make docs" in qt5/ or in the repositories
* run the QDoc tool for each module


Running "make docs"
===================

To build the documentation using Makefiles, qtbase needs to be compiled and
installed.

Running qmake will create make targets to build the documentation:
* html_docs - builds only the HTML documentation
* qch_docs - packages the HTML documentation into QCH files for Qt Creator and
             Qt Assistant.
* docs - runs html_docs and qch_docs

Note: qch_docs needs qhelpgenerator to package the documentation. qhelpgenerator
is in the qttools repository.

These make targets use qmake's QT_INSTALL_DOCS variable as the output directory.
Running "qmake -query" will list the directory set to QT_INSTALL_DOCS.

To create all of the modules' documentation, run "make docs" in the
qt5 directory:
    $> make docs            # builds the bundled modules' documentation

It is also possible to build only a small subset of the documentation by using
make:
    $> cd qtbase
    $> make docs            # builds the documentation for modules in qtbase

    $> cd qtbase/src/sql
    $> make docs            # builds only the Qt SQL documentation


Running QDoc
============

QDoc is the tool for generating Qt documentation and is located in qtbase.
The simplest way to compile QDoc is to compile qtbase or only the tools in
qtbase.

    $> cd qtbase/src
    $> make sub-tools # compiles QDoc

Each module has a QDoc configuration file (.qdocconf). To build a module's
documentation, run the "qdoc" binary and pass the qdocconf file as a parameter.
A mandatory "outputdir" must be specified.

    $> qdoc doc/config/qtdoc.qdocconf -outputdir html

    Note that QDoc will delete the contents of the "html" output directory.

Packaging the Documentation
===========================

To package the documentation, the HTML files must be compiled
into a QCH file (.qch).

Required binaries:
    * assistant - found in qttools
    * qhelpgenerator - found in qttools

To compile the qch file for each module, first enter the output directory that
contains the .qhp file and generate the QCH file.

    $> cd qtbase/doc/qtdoc              #the default path for QT_INSTALL_DOCS for qtdoc
    $> qhelpgenerator qtdoc.qhp         #creates the QCH file called qtdoc.qch

The QCH file can then be loaded in Qt Assistant or Qt Creator. For Qt Assistant,
the QCH file can be registered to automatically load it.

    $> assistant -register qtdoc.qch    #to automatically load the documentation


Global Files
============

The qtbase/doc/global directory contains various files used by the modules to
build the documentation. These include macros, stylesheets, and images for
displaying documentation.

To include these files in a qdocconf, add the following to a qdocconf file:

    include($QT_INSTALL_DOCS/global/qt-module-defaults.qdocconf)


Documentation Structure
=======================
For a typical module, the documentation will reside in the source directory.
The examples and the example documentation are in the "examples" directory.

    qtbase/src/sql/doc/src              #Qt SQL's documentation
    qtbase/examples/sql                 #Qt SQL's examples

More Information
================

For more information about Qt 5's documentation, refer to the Qt Project wiki:
http://wiki.qt.io/Qt5DocumentationProject