Checks that each Java package has a Javadoc file used for commenting. By default it only allows a package-info.java file, but can be configured to allow a package.html file.
An error will be reported if both files exist as this is not allowed by the Javadoc tool.
name | description | type | default value |
---|---|---|---|
allowLegacy | If set then allow the use of a package.html file. | boolean | false |
Checks Javadoc comments for class and interface definitions. By default, does not check for author or version tags. The scope to verify is specified using the Scope class and defaults to Scope.PRIVATE. To verify another scope, set property scope to one of the Scope constants. To define the format for an author tag or a version tag, set property authorFormat or versionFormat respectively to a regular expression.
Error messages about type parameters for which no param tags are present can be suppressed by defining property allowMissingParamTags.
name | description | type | default value |
---|---|---|---|
scope | visibility scope where Javadoc comments are checked | scope | private |
excludeScope | visibility scope where Javadoc comments are not checked | scope | null |
authorFormat | pattern for @author tag | regular expression | null (tag not required) |
versionFormat | pattern for @version tag | regular expression | null (tag not required) |
allowMissingParamTags | whether to ignore errors when a class has type parameters but does not have matching param tags in the javadoc. | boolean | false |
allowUnknownTags | whether to ignore errors when a Javadoc tag is not recognised. | boolean | false |
tokens | definitions to check | subset of tokens INTERFACE_DEF, CLASS_DEF | INTERFACE_DEF, CLASS_DEF, |
To configure the default check:
<module name="JavadocType"/>
To configure the check for public scope:
<module name="JavadocType"> <property name="scope" value="public"/> </module>
To configure the check for an @author tag:
<module name="JavadocType"> <property name="authorFormat" value="\S"/> </module>
To configure the check for a CVS revision version tag:
<module name="JavadocType"> <property name="versionFormat" value="\$Revision.*\$"/> </module>
To configure the check for private classes only:
<module name="JavadocType"> <property name="scope" value="private"/> <property name="excludescope" value="package"/> </module>
Checks the Javadoc of a method or constructor. By default, does not check for unused throws. To allow documented java.lang.RuntimeExceptions that are not declared, set property allowUndeclaredRTE to true. The scope to verify is specified using the Scope class and defaults to Scope.PRIVATE. To verify another scope, set property scope to a different scope.
Error messages about parameters and type parameters for which no param tags are present can be suppressed by defining property allowMissingParamTags. Error messages about exceptions which are declared to be thrown, but for which no throws tag is present can be suppressed by defining property allowMissingThrowsTags. Error messages about methods which return non-void but for which no return tag is present can be suppressed by defining property allowMissingReturnTag.
Javadoc is not required on a method that is tagged with the @Override annotation. However under Java 5 it is not possible to mark a method required for an interface (this was corrected under Java 6). Hence Checkstyle supports using the convention of using a single {@inheritDoc} tag instead of all the other tags.
Note that only inheritable items will allow the {@inheritDoc} tag to be used in place of comments. Static methods at all visibilities, private non-static methods and constructors are not inheritable.
For example, if the following method is implementing a method required by an interface, then the Javadoc could be done as:
/** {@inheritDoc} */ public int checkReturnTag(final int aTagIndex, JavadocTag[] aTags, int aLineNo)
The classpath may need to be configured to locate the class information. The classpath configuration is dependent on the mechanism used to invoke Checkstyle.
name | description | type | default value |
---|---|---|---|
scope | visibility scope where Javadoc comments are checked | scope | private |
excludeScope | visibility scope where Javadoc comments are not checked | scope | null |
allowUndeclaredRTE | whether to allow documented exceptions that are not declared if they are a subclass of java.lang.RuntimeException | boolean | false |
allowThrowsTagsForSubclasses | whether to allow documented exceptions that are subclass of one of declared exception. | boolean | false |
allowMissingParamTags | whether to ignore errors when a method has parameters but does not have matching param tags in the javadoc. | boolean | false |
allowMissingThrowsTags | whether to ignore errors when a method declares that it throws exceptions but does have matching throws tags in the javadoc. | boolean | false |
allowMissingReturnTag | whether to ignore errors when a method returns non-void type does have a return tag in the javadoc. | boolean | false |
allowMissingJavadoc | whether to ignore errors when a method javadoc is missed. | boolean | false |
allowMissingPropertyJavadoc |
Whether to allow missing Javadoc on accessor methods for
properties (setters and getters). The setter and getter
methods must match exactly the structures below.
public void setNumber(final int number) { mNumber = number; } public int getNumber() { return mNumber; } public boolean isSomething() { return false; } |
boolean | false |
logLoadErrors | This check may need to load exception classes mentioned in the @throws tag to check whether they are RuntimeExceptions. If loading the class fails, this property allows to control checkstyle's error handling. If set to false a classpath configuration problem is assumed and the TreeWalker stops operating on the class completely. If set to true (the default) , checkstyle assumes a typo or refactoring problem in the javadoc and logs the problem in the normal checkstyle report (potentially masking a configuration error). | boolean | true |
suppressLoadErrors | When logLoadErrors is set to true, the TreeWalker completely processes a class and displays any problems with loading exceptions as checkstyle violations. When this property is set to true, the violations generated when logLoadErrors is set true are suppressed from being reported as violations in the checkstyle report. | boolean | false |
tokens | definitions to check | subset of tokens METHOD_DEF, CTOR_DEF | METHOD_DEF, CTOR_DEF |
To configure the default check:
<module name="JavadocMethod"/>
To configure the check for public scope and to allow documentation of undeclared RuntimeExceptions:
<module name="JavadocMethod"> <property name="scope" value="public"/> <property name="allowUndeclaredRTE" value="true"/> </module>
To configure the check for for public scope, to allow documentation of undeclared RuntimeExceptions, while ignoring any missing param tags is:
<module name="JavadocMethod"> <property name="scope" value="public"/> <property name="allowUndeclaredRTE" value="true"/> <property name="allowMissingParamTags" value="true"/> </module>
To configure the check for methods which are in private , but not in protected scope:
<module name="JavadocMethod"> <property name="scope" value="private"/> <property name="excludeScope" value="protected"/> </module>
name | description | type | default value |
---|---|---|---|
scope | visibility scope where Javadoc comments are checked | scope | private |
excludeScope | visibility scope where Javadoc comments are not checked | scope | null |
To configure the default check:
<module name="JavadocVariable"/>
To configure the check for public scope:
<module name="JavadocVariable"> <property name="scope" value="public"/> </module>
To configure the check for members which are in private, but not in protected scope:
<module name="JavadocVariable"> <property name="scope" value="private"/> <property name="excludeScope" value="protected"/> </module>
Validates Javadoc comments to help ensure they are well formed. The following checks are performed:
These checks were patterned after the checks made by the DocCheck doclet available from Sun.
name | description | type | default value |
---|---|---|---|
scope | visibility scope where Javadoc comments are checked | scope | private |
excludeScope | visibility scope where Javadoc comments are not checked | scope | null |
checkFirstSentence | Whether to check the first sentence for proper end of sentence. | boolean | true |
endOfSentenceFormat | Format for matching the end of a sentence. | regular expression | ([.?!][ \t\n\r\f<])|([.?!]$) |
checkEmptyJavadoc | Whether to check if the Javadoc is missing a describing text. | boolean | false |
checkHtml | Whether to check for incomplete html tags. | boolean | true |
tokens | definitions to check | subset of tokens INTERFACE_DEF, CLASS_DEF, METHOD_DEF, CTOR_DEF, VARIABLE_DEF | INTERFACE_DEF, CLASS_DEF, METHOD_DEF, CTOR_DEF, VARIABLE_DEF |
To configure the default check:
<module name="JavadocStyle"/>
To configure the check for public scope:
<module name="JavadocStyle"> <property name="scope" value="public"/> </module>
To configure the check for javadoc which is in private, but not in package scope:
<module name="JavadocStyle"> <property name="scope" value="private"/> <property name="excludeScope" value="package"/> </module>
To configure the check to turn off first sentence checking:
<module name="JavadocStyle"> <property name="checkFirstSentence" value="false"/> </module>
Outputs a JavaDoc tag as information. Can be used e.g. with the stylesheets that sort the report by author name. To define the format for a tag, set property tagFormat to a regular expression. This check uses two different severity levels. The normal one is used for reporting when the tag is missing. The additional one (tagSeverity) is used for the level of reporting when the tag exists.
name | description | type | default value |
---|---|---|---|
tag | Name of tag | String | null |
tagFormat | Format of tag | regular expression | null |
tagSeverity | Severity level when tag is found and printed | severity | info |
An example of how to configure the check for printing author name is:
<module name="WriteTag"> <property name="tag" value="@author"/> <property name="tagFormat" value="\S"/> </module>
An example of how to configure the check to print warnings if an "@incomplete" tag is found, and not print anything if it is not found:
<module name="WriteTag"> <property name="tag" value="@incomplete"/> <property name="tagFormat" value="\S"/> <property name="severity" value="ignore"/> <property name="tagSeverity" value="warning"/> </module>