---
name: "ocamldoc"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "ocaml"
version: "5.5.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ocamldoc"
---

# ocamldoc(1)

The OCaml documentation generator

## NAME

ocamldoc - The OCaml documentation generator

## SYNOPSIS

**ocamldoc** \[ *options* \] *filename* ...

## DESCRIPTION

The OCaml documentation generator [**ocamldoc**(1)](/ocamldoc/1.md) generates documentation from special comments embedded in source files. The comments used by **ocamldoc** are of the form *(\*\* ... \*)* and follow the format described in the *The OCaml user's manual*.

**ocamldoc** can produce documentation in various formats: HTML, LaTeX, TeXinfo, Unix man pages, and [**dot**(1)](/dot/1.md) dependency graphs. Moreover, users can add their own custom generators.

In this manpage, we use the word *element* to refer to any of the following parts of an OCaml source file: a type declaration, a value, a module, an exception, a module type, a type constructor, a record field, a class, a class type, a class method, a class value or a class inheritance clause.

## OPTIONS

The following command-line options determine the format for the generated documentation generated by [**ocamldoc**(1)](/ocamldoc/1.md).

### Options for choosing the output format

- **-html**

  Generate documentation in HTML default format. The generated HTML pages are stored in the current directory, or in the directory specified with the **-d** option. You can customize the style of the generated pages by editing the generated *style.css* file, or by providing your own style sheet using option **-css-style**. The file *style.css* is not generated if it already exists.

- **-latex**

  Generate documentation in LaTeX default format. The generated LaTeX document is saved in file *ocamldoc.out*, or in the file specified with the **-o** option. The document uses the style file *ocamldoc.sty*. This file is generated when using the **-latex** option, if it does not already exist. You can change this file to customize the style of your LaTeX documentation.

- **-texi**

  Generate documentation in TeXinfo default format. The generated LaTeX document is saved in file *ocamldoc.out*, or in the file specified with the **-o** option.

- **-man**

  Generate documentation as a set of Unix man pages. The generated pages are stored in the current directory, or in the directory specified with the **-d** option.

- **-dot**

  Generate a dependency graph for the toplevel modules, in a format suitable for displaying and processing by [**dot**(1)](/dot/1.md). The [**dot**(1)](/dot/1.md) tool is available from *https://graphviz.org/*. The textual representation of the graph is written to the file *ocamldoc.out*, or to the file specified with the **-o** option. Use **dot** *ocamldoc.out* to display it.

- **-g** *file*

  Dynamically load the given file (which extension usually is .cmo or .cma), which defines a custom documentation generator. If the given file is a simple one and does not exist in the current directory, then **ocamldoc** looks for it in the custom generators default directory, and in the directories specified with the **-i** option.

- **-customdir**

  Display the custom generators default directory.

- **-i** *directory*

  Add the given directory to the path where to look for custom generators.

### General options

- **-d** *dir*

  Generate files in directory *dir*, rather than the current directory.

- **-dump** *file*

  Dump collected information into *file*. This information can be read with the **-load** option in a subsequent invocation of [**ocamldoc**(1)](/ocamldoc/1.md).

- **-hide** *modules*

  Hide the given complete module names in the generated documentation. *modules* is a list of complete module names are separated by commas (,), without blanks. For instance: *Stdlib,M2.M3*.

- **-inv-merge-ml-mli**

  Reverse the precedence of implementations and interfaces when merging. All elements in implementation files are kept, and the **-m** option indicates which parts of the comments in interface files are merged with the comments in implementation files.

- **-keep-code**

  Always keep the source code for values, methods and instance variables, when available. The source code is always kept when a .ml file is given, but is by default discarded when a .mli is given. This option allows the source code to be always kept.

- **-load** *file*

  Load information from *file*, which has been produced by **ocamldoc** -dump**.** Several **-load** options can be given.

- **-m** *flags*

  Specify merge options between interfaces and implementations. *flags* can be one or several of the following characters:

  **d** merge description

  **a** merge @author

  **v** merge @version

  **l** merge @see

  **s** merge @since

  **o** merge @deprecated

  **p** merge @param

  **e** merge @raise

  **r** merge @return

  **A** merge everything

- **-no-custom-tags**

  Do not allow custom @-tags.

- **-no-stop**

  Keep elements placed after the **(\*\*/\*\*)** special comment.

- **-o** *file*

  Output the generated documentation to *file* instead of *ocamldoc.out*. This option is meaningful only in conjunction with the **-latex**, **-texi**, or **-dot** options.

- **-open** *module*

  Opens *module* before typing.

- **-pp** *command*

  Pipe sources through preprocessor *command*.

- **-ppx** *command*

  Pipe abstract syntax tree through preprocessor *command*.

- **-show-missed-crossref**

  Show missed cross-reference opportunities.

- **-sort**

  Sort the list of top-level modules before generating the documentation.

- **-stars**

  Remove blank characters until the first asterisk ('\*') in each line of comments.

- **-t** *title*

  Use *title* as the title for the generated documentation.

- **-text** *file*

  Consider *file* as a .txt file.

- **-intro** *file*

  Use content of *file* as **ocamldoc** text to use as introduction (HTML, LaTeX and TeXinfo only). For HTML, the file is used to create the whole "index.html" file.

- **-v**

  Verbose mode. Display progress information.

- **-version**

  Print version string and exit.

- **-vnum**

  Print short version number and exit.

- **-warn-error**

  Treat **ocamldoc** warnings as errors.

- **-hide-warnings**

  Do not print **ocamldoc** warnings.

- **-help** or **--help**

  Display a short usage summary and exit.

### Type-checking options

[**ocamldoc**(1)](/ocamldoc/1.md) calls the OCaml type-checker to obtain type information. The following options impact the type-checking phase. They have the same meaning as for the [**ocamlc**(1)](/ocamlc/1.md) **and** ocamlopt**(1)** commands.

- **-I** *directory*

  Add *directory* to the list of directories search for compiled interface files (.cmi files).

- **-nolabels**

  Ignore non-optional labels in types.

- **-rectypes**

   Allow arbitrary recursive types. (See the **-rectypes** option to [**ocamlc**(1)](/ocamlc/1.md).)

### Options for generating HTML pages

The following options apply in conjunction with the **-html** option:

- **-all-params**

  Display the complete list of parameters for functions and methods.

- **-charset** *s*

  Add information about character encoding being *s* (default is **iso-8859-1**).

- **-css-style** *filename*

  Use *filename* as the Cascading Style Sheet file.

- **-colorize-code**

  Colorize the OCaml code enclosed in \[ \] and \\{\[ \]\\}, using colors to emphasize keywords, etc. If the code fragments are not syntactically correct, no color is added.

- **-index-only**

  Generate only index files.

- **-short-functors**

  Use a short form to display functors: **module M : functor (A:Module) -\> functor (B:Module2) -\> sig .. end** is displayed as **module M (A:Module) (B:Module2) : sig .. end**.

### Options for generating LaTeX files

The following options apply in conjunction with the **-latex** option:

- **-latex-value-prefix prefix**

  Give a prefix to use for the labels of the values in the generated LaTeX document. The default prefix is the empty string. You can also use the options **-latex-type-prefix**, **-latex-exception-prefix**, **-latex-module-prefix**, **-latex-module-type-prefix**, **-latex-class-prefix**, **-latex-class-type-prefix**, **-latex-attribute-prefix**, and **-latex-method-prefix**.

  These options are useful when you have, for example, a type and a value with the same name. If you do not specify prefixes, LaTeX will complain about multiply defined labels.

- **-latextitle** *n,style*

  Associate style number *n* to the given LaTeX sectioning command *style*, e.g. **section**or**subsection**. (LaTeX only.) This is useful when including the generated document in another LaTeX document, at a given sectioning level. The default association is 1 for section, 2 for subsection, 3 for subsubsection, 4 for paragraph and 5 for subparagraph.

- **-noheader**

  Suppress header in generated documentation.

- **-notoc**

  Do not generate a table of contents.

- **-notrailer**

  Suppress trailer in generated documentation.

- **-sepfiles**

  Generate one .tex file per toplevel module, instead of the global *ocamldoc.out* file.

### Options for generating TeXinfo files

The following options apply in conjunction with the **-texi** option:

- **-esc8**

  Escape accented characters in Info files.

- **-info-entry**

  Specify Info directory entry.

- **-info-section**

  Specify section of Info directory.

- **-noheader**

  Suppress header in generated documentation.

- **-noindex**

  Do not build index for Info files.

- **-notrailer**

  Suppress trailer in generated documentation.

### Options for generating dot graphs

The following options apply in conjunction with the **-dot** option:

- **-dot-colors** *colors*

  Specify the colors to use in the generated dot code. When generating module dependencies, [**ocamldoc**(1)](/ocamldoc/1.md) uses different colors for modules, depending on the directories in which they reside. When generating types dependencies, [**ocamldoc**(1)](/ocamldoc/1.md) uses different colors for types, depending on the modules in which they are defined. *colors* is a list of color names separated by commas (,), as in **Red,Blue,Green**. The available colors are the ones supported by the [**dot**(1)](/dot/1.md) tool.

- **-dot-include-all**

  Include all modules in the [**dot**(1)](/dot/1.md) output, not only modules given on the command line or loaded with the **-load** option.

- **-dot-reduce**

  Perform a transitive reduction of the dependency graph before outputting the dot code. This can be useful if there are a lot of transitive dependencies that clutter the graph.

- **-dot-types**

  Output dot code describing the type dependency graph instead of the module dependency graph.

### Options for generating man files

The following options apply in conjunction with the **-man** option:

- **-man-mini**

  Generate man pages only for modules, module types, classes and class types, instead of pages for all elements.

- **-man-suffix** *suffix*

  Set the suffix used for generated man filenames. Default is o, as in *List.o*.

- **-man-section** *section*

  Set the section number used for generated man filenames. Default is 3.

## SEE ALSO

[**ocaml**(1)](/ocaml/1.md), [**ocamlc**(1)](/ocamlc/1.md), [**ocamlopt**(1)](/ocamlopt/1.md).\
 *The OCaml user's manual*, chapter "The documentation generator".