Since version 1.2.18, Doxygen can generate a new output format we +have called the "Perl Module output format". It has been +designed as an intermediate format that can be used to generate new +and customized output without having to modify the Doxygen source. +Therefore, its purpose is similar to the XML output format that can be +also generated by Doxygen. The XML output format is more standard, +but the Perl Module output format is possibly simpler and easier to +use. + +
The Perl Module output format is still experimental at the moment +and could be changed in incompatible ways in future versions, although +this should not be very probable. It is also lacking some features of +other Doxygen backends. However, it can be already used to generate +useful output, as shown by the Perl Module-based LaTeX generator. + +
Please report any bugs or problems you find in the Perl Module +backend or the Perl Module-based LaTeX generator to the +doxygen-develop mailing list. Suggestions are welcome as well. + +\section using_perlmod_fmt Using the Perl Module output format. + +
When the GENERATE_PERLMOD tag is enabled in the Doxyfile, +running Doxygen generates a number of files in the perlmod/ +subdirectory of your output directory. These files are the following: + +
To make use of the documentation stored in DoxyDocs.pm you can use +one of the default Perl Module-based generators provided by Doxygen +(at the moment this includes the Perl Module-based LaTeX generator, +see \ref perlmod_latex "below") or write your own customized +generator. This should not be too hard if you have some knowledge of +Perl and it's the main purpose of including the Perl Module backend in +Doxygen. See \ref doxydocs_format "below" for details on how +to do this. + +\section perlmod_latex Using the Perl Module-based LaTeX generator. + +
The Perl Module-based LaTeX generator is pretty experimental and +incomplete at the moment, but you could find it useful nevertheless. +It can generate documentation for functions, typedefs and variables +within files and classes and can be customized quite a lot by +redefining TeX macros. However, there is still no documentation on +how to do this. + +
Setting the PERLMOD_LATEX tag to YES in the Doxyfile +enables the creation of some additional files in the perlmod/ +subdirectory of your output directory. These files contain the Perl +scripts and LaTeX code necessary to generate PDF and DVI output from +the Perl Module output, using PDFLaTeX and LaTeX respectively. Rules +to automate the use of these files are also added to +doxyrules.make and the Makefile. + +
The additional generated files are the following: + +
To try this you need to have installed LaTeX, PDFLaTeX and the +packages used by doxylatex.tex. + +
doxygen -u Doxyfile+ +
doxygen Doxyfile+ +
make pdf+ +
This should generate a doxylatex.pdf with the documentation +in PDF format. + +
make dvi+ +
This should generate a doxylatex.dvi with the documentation +in DVI format. + +
The Perl Module documentation generated by Doxygen is stored in +DoxyDocs.pm. This is a very simple Perl module that contains +only two statements: an assigment to the variable $doxydocs and +the customary 1; statement which usually ends Perl modules. +The documentation is stored in the variable $doxydocs, which +can then be accessed by a Perl script using DoxyDocs.pm. + +
$doxydocs contains a tree-like structure composed of three +types of nodes: strings, hashes and lists. + +
As you can see, the documentation contained in $doxydocs +does not present any special impediment to be processed by a simple +Perl script. + + +\section doxymodel_format Data structure describing the Perl Module documentation tree. + +
You might be interested in processing the documentation contained +in DoxyDocs.pm without needing to take into account the +semantics of each node of the documentation tree. For this purpose, +Doxygen generates a DoxyModel.pm file which contains a data +structure describing the type and children of each node in the +documentation tree. + +
The rest of this section is to be written yet, but in the meantime +you can look at the Perl scripts generated by Doxygen (such as +doxylatex.pl or doxytemplate-latex.pl) to get an idea on +how to use DoxyModel.pm. + +*/