# (developers) All about the new auto-generated docs feature, how it works, and what I need your help with

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/developers-all-about-the-new-auto-generated-docs-feature-how-it-works-and-what-i-need-your-help-with/11938>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [September 28, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/developers-all-about-the-new-auto-generated-docs-feature-how-it-works-and-what-i-need-your-help-with/11938 "2012-09-28T01:43:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![jpmens1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jpmens1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jpmens1)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/developers-all-about-the-new-auto-generated-docs-feature-how-it-works-and-what-i-need-your-help-with/11938/21 "2012-09-30T17:17:23Z")

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> I think it's unnecessary and way too much to maintain and think about.

Indeed.

I've forseen ansible/ and ansible-docs/ living beneat a single  
directory:

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;my-dir/  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ansible/  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;library/...  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ansible-docs/  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;rst/  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Makefile

1. In "ansible" a `make manpages' will create \*.man  
2. In "ansible-docs", a `make' will generate include file for .rst (PR  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;submitted 5m ago) and will create all static HTML as has been done so  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;far. (Nothing else changed there!)

Later on, I'd like an "ansible-booklet/" at the same level for the rest  
(but that's still on the horizon somewhere)

> We basically have this already, it's "make docs". It would have to  
> call the module formatter once to output the JSON  
> file. Super easy.

That's the way I envision it, too.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;-JP

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**Author:** ![Marco\_Vito\_Moscarito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/97f17d/32.png) [@Marco\_Vito\_Moscarito](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Marco_Vito_Moscarito)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 12:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/developers-all-about-the-new-auto-generated-docs-feature-how-it-works-and-what-i-need-your-help-with/11938/22 "2012-10-03T12:32:56Z")

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About your suggestion to use Makefile to generate JS docs:

\* [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/1215](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/1215)

this generate the modules.js file to move in ansible-docs (I'll  
integrate my template in it ASAP) to use JS generated documentation.

Bye  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marco

PS: just a prototype, maybe some python code can be write better/removed 😛

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