Command godoc

Godoc extracts and generates documentation for Go programs.

It has two modes.

Without the -http flag, it runs in command-line mode and prints plain text documentation to standard output and exits. If the -src flag is specified, godoc prints the exported interface of a package in Go source form, or the implementation of a specific exported language entity:

godoc fmt                # documentation for package fmt
godoc fmt Printf         # documentation for fmt.Printf
godoc -src fmt           # fmt package interface in Go source form
godoc -src fmt Printf    # implementation of fmt.Printf

In command-line mode, the -q flag enables search queries against a godoc running as a webserver. If no explicit server address is specified with the -server flag, godoc first tries localhost:6060 and then http://golang.org.

godoc -q Reader Writer
godoc -q math.Sin
godoc -server=:6666 -q sin

With the -http flag, it runs as a web server and presents the documentation as a web page.

godoc -http=:6060

Usage:

godoc [flag] package [name ...]

The flags are:

-v
	verbose mode
-q
	arguments are considered search queries: a legal query is a
	single identifier (such as ToLower) or a qualified identifier
	(such as math.Sin).
-src
	print (exported) source in command-line mode
-tabwidth=4
	width of tabs in units of spaces
-path=""
	additional package directories (colon-separated)
-html
	print HTML in command-line mode
-goroot=$GOROOT
	Go root directory
-http=addr
	HTTP service address (e.g., '127.0.0.1:6060' or just ':6060')
-server=addr
	webserver address for command line searches
-sync="command"
	if this and -sync_minutes are set, run the argument as a
	command every sync_minutes; it is intended to update the
	repository holding the source files.
-sync_minutes=0
	sync interval in minutes; sync is disabled if <= 0

The -path flag accepts a list of colon-separated paths; unrooted paths are relative to the current working directory. Each path is considered as an additional root for packages in order of appearance. The last (absolute) path element is the prefix for the package path. For instance, given the flag value:

path=".:/home/bar:/public"

for a godoc started in /home/user/godoc, absolute paths are mapped to package paths as follows:

/home/user/godoc/x -> godoc/x
/home/bar/x        -> bar/x
/public/x          -> public/x

When godoc runs as a web server, it creates a search index from all .go files under -goroot (excluding files starting with .). The index is created at startup and is automatically updated every time the -sync command terminates with exit status 0, indicating that files have changed.

If the sync exit status is 1, godoc assumes that it succeeded without errors but that no files changed; the index is not updated in this case.

In all other cases, sync is assumed to have failed and godoc backs off running sync exponentially (up to 1 day). As soon as sync succeeds again (exit status 0 or 1), the normal sync rhythm is re-established.