Provided by: gi-docgen_2025.3-1_all 
NAME
gi-docgen - a documentation generator using gobject-introspection
SYNOPSIS
gi-docgen COMMAND [OPTION...] GIR_FILE
DESCRIPTION
GI-DocGen is a document generator for GObject-based libraries. GObject is the base type system of the
GNOME project. GI-DocGen uses the machine readable introspection data provided by GObject-based libraries
in order to generate the API reference of these libraries, as well as other ancillary documentation.
The main gi-docgen executable provides various subcommands to access all its functionality.
Common options
All commands have the following options:
--quiet
do not print details of the current operation
--fatal-warnings
make warnings fatal errors
--help print command line help
The generate command
The generate command provides the main functionality of gi-docgen.
gi-docgen generate [ OPTIONS ] [ GIR_FILE ]
The generate command will parse the given GIR file, as well as its dependencies, and build an API
reference for the namespace it finds in the introspection data. Projects can use a configuration file to
control aspects of the output, as well as provide additional content that should be included in the
documentation.
options:
--config=FILE
use the given project configuration file
--content-dir=PATH
specify the directory where the content files listed in the project configuration file can be
found
--templates-dir=PATH
specify the directory where the templates used to generate the documentation can be found
--theme-name=NAME
specify the template name to be used when generating the documentation, overriding the project's
configuration
--output-dir=PATH
create the documentation under the given directory
--no-namespace-dir
generate all documentation files directly under the output directory, instead of creating a
directory using the namespace name and version
--add-include-path=PATH
add a directory to the path which the scanner uses to find GIR files. Can be used multiple times
to specify multiple directories
--section=NAME
generate the documentation only for the given section. Can be used multiple times to specify
multiple sections. The supported sections are aliases, bitfields, classes, domains, enums,
interfaces, structs and unions. Special values are all, meaning all sections (the default); and
none, meaning no section
--dry-run
parse the GIR_FILE without generating the documentation
The gen-index command
The gen-index command generates an index of symbols and terms that can be used to search inside the
documentation generated by gi-docgen.
gi-docgen gen-index [ OPTIONS ] [ GIR_FILE ]
The generated index is a JSON formatted file is called index.json.
options:
--config=FILE
use the given project configuration file
--content-dir=PATH
specify the directory where the content files listed in the project configuration file can be
found
--output-dir=PATH
create the index under the given directory
--add-include-path=PATH
add a directory to the path which the scanner uses to find GIR files. Can be used multiple times
to specify multiple directories
--dry-run
parse the GIR_FILE without generating the documentation
The check command
The check command runs a series of checks on the introspection file, to verify that public API is
properly documented. It can be used as part of a test suite.
gi-docgen check [ OPTIONS ] [ GIR_FILE ]
options:
--config=FILE
use the given project configuration file
--add-include-path=PATH
add a directory to the path which the scanner uses to find GIR files. Can be used multiple times
to specify multiple directories
The serve command
The serve command generates an API reference and serves it using a local HTTP server.
gi-docgen serve [ OPTIONS ] [ GIR_FILE ]
The serve command will parse the given GIR file, as well as its dependencies, and build an API reference
for the namespace it finds in the introspection data. Once the reference has been built successfully,
gi-docgen will start a local HTTP server pointing at the output directory.
options:
--bind=ADDRESS
use the given address for the HTTP server; the default is 127.0.0.1
--port=PORT
use the given port for the HTTP server; the default is 8080
The help command
The help command prints out the command line help. If you don't specify any command or option when
invoking gi-docgen, the help command will be implied.
gi-docgen help [ OPTIONS ] [ COMMAND ]
If no command is specified, help will print out the list of commands.
If a command is specified, help will print out the command line help for that program.
options:
--version
print out the version of gi-docgen
EXIT STATUS
0 The command was successful.
1 Error, or warning, was generated.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The gi-docgen executable uses the XDG_DATA_DIRS and XDG_DATA_HOME environment variables to search for
introspection data included in the GIR file.
If the GIDOCGEN_DEBUG environment variable is set, gi-docgen will print out additional messages, which
can be helpful when debugging issues.
SEE ALSO
GI-DocGen: http://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/gi-docgen/
GObject-Introspection: https://gi.readthedocs.org/
GObject: https://developer.gnome.org/gobject/
gi-docgen 2021.3 GI-DOCGEN(1)