cargo-readme

Generate README.md from doc comments.

Cargo subcommand that extract documentation from your crate's doc comments that you can use to populate your README.md.

Attribution

This library was authored by Livio Ribeiro (@livioribeiro) and originally located at https://github.com/livioribeiro/cargo-readme, which now redirects here (as of August 2023). Thank you, Livio, for this lib!

Installation

cargo install cargo-readme

Motivation

As you write documentation, you often have to show examples of how to use your software. But how do you make sure your examples are all working properly? That we didn't forget to update them after a breaking change and left our (possibly new) users with errors they will have to figure out by themselves?

With cargo-readme, you just write the rustdoc, run the tests, and then run:

cargo readme > README.md

And that's it! Your README.md is populated with the contents of the doc comments from your lib.rs (or main.rs).

Usage

Let's take the following rust doc:

//! This is my awesome crate
//!
//! Here goes some other description of what it is and what is does
//!
//! # Examples
//! ```
//! fn sum2(n1: i32, n2: i32) -> i32 {
//!   n1 + n2
//! }
//! # assert_eq!(4, sum2(2, 2));
//! ```

Running cargo readme will output the following:

[![Build Status](__badge_image__)](__badge_url__)

# my_crate

This is my awesome crate

Here goes some other description of what it is and what is does

## Examples
```rust
fn sum2(n1: i32, n2: i32) -> i32 {
  n1 + n2
}
```

License: MY_LICENSE

Let's see what's happened:

• a badge was created from the one defined in the [badges] section of Cargo.toml
• the crate name ("my-crate") was added
• "# Examples" heading became "## Examples"
• code block became "```rust"
• hidden line # assert_eq!(4, sum2(2, 2)); was removed

cargo-readme also supports multiline doc comments /*! */ (but you cannot mix styles):

/*!
This is my awesome crate

Here goes some other description of what it is and what is does

```
fn sum2(n1: i32, n2: i32) -> i32 {
  n1 + n2
}
```
*/

If you have additional information that does not fit in doc comments, you can use a template. Just create a file called README.tpl in the same directory as Cargo.toml with the following content:

{{badges}}

# {{crate}}

{{readme}}

Current version: {{version}}

Some additional info here

License: {{license}}

The output will look like this

[![Build Status](__badge_image__)](__badge_url__)

# my_crate

Current version: 3.0.0

This is my awesome crate

Here goes some other description of what it is and what is does

## Examples
```rust
fn sum2(n1: i32, n2: i32) -> i32 {
  n1 + n2
}
```

Some additional info here

License: MY_LICENSE

By default, README.tpl will be used as the template, but you can override it using the --template to choose a different template or --no-template to disable it.

License

Licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0, (LICENSE-APACHE or https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.