cargo-doc2readme

cargo doc2readme is a cargo subcommand to create a readme file to display on Codeberg, GitHub or crates.io, containing the rustdoc comments from your code.

Installation

AlpineLinux

On AlpineLinux 3.23 and newer, you can install cargo-doc2readme using apk:

apk add cargo-doc2readme

ArchLinux

If you are using ArchLinux, you can install cargo-doc2readme from the AUR:

yay -S cargo-doc2readme

Other

On other Operating Systems, make sure you have Rust installed (preferrably using your distributions package manager, but you can also use rustup) and then run the following command:

cargo install cargo-doc2readme

Usage

To generate your readme, simply run

cargo doc2readme

This will output the readme to a file called README.md, using README.j2 or the built-in template.

If you want to run this using Forgejo or GitHub Actions, you can use the pre-built docker image:

readme:
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: docker://codeberg.org/msrd0/cargo-doc2readme
      with:
        entrypoint: cargo
        args: doc2readme --check

This will use the latest stable Rust version available when the latest release of cargo doc2readme was created. If you need a newer/nightly Rust compiler, use the codeberg.io/msrd0/cargo-doc2readme:nightly docker image instead.

Features

• parse markdown from your rustdoc comments and embed it into your readme
• use existing crates to parse Rust and Markdown
• support your [CustomType] rustdoc links
• default, minimalistic readme template with some useful badges
• custom readme templates

Non-Goals

• verbatim copy of your markdown
• easy readability of the generated markdown source code

Similar tools

cargo readme is a similar tool. However, it brings its own Rust code parser that only covers the 95% use case. Also, it does not support Rust path links introduced in Rust 1.48, making your readme ugly since the unsupported links are shown as raw markdown, and being less convenient for the reader that has to search docs.rs instead of clicking on a link.

cargo rdme is another tool which places your rustdoc into your readme. However, it does not come with template support, which is helpful for bigger repositories that contain multiple crates, and has only very basic support for Rust path links. All links not starting with crate:: or ::std are unsupported by cargo rdme.

Stability Guarantees

This project adheres to semantic versioning. All versions will be tested against the latest stable rust version at the time of the release. All non-bugfix changes to the rustdoc input processing and markdown output or the default readme template are considered breaking changes, as well as any non-backwards-compatible changes to the command-line arguments or to these stability guarantees. All other changes, including any changes to the Rust code, or bumping the MSRV, are not considered breaking changes.