Add option to include private definition in the documentation.

[nwin]

Please add an option for rustdoc such that rustdoc creates a proper documentation for private definitions.

While it is in general a good idea to hide these private definitions, as a crate developer it would be very valuable to have a good internal documentation of private types and functions.

[steveklabnik]

I'm -1. You can use regular comments for internal documentation.

[alexcrichton]

Closing, you can actually do this today!

rustdoc --no-defaults --passes collapse-docs --passes unindent-comments

By default rustdoc has a pass to strip private items, but those flags are just disabling that pass from running. rustdoc -h should give you more information.

[nwin]

This at least not work in my crate. All private definitions are still hidden.

Beside that, I get a strange error message "ERROR:rustdoc: unknown pass collapse-docs unindent-comments, skipping" when I use both passes.

[alexcrichton]

Hm it appears that they seem to no longer work! reopening.

[SimonSapin]

I’d like this (and a way to have cargo doc enable it) for http://doc.servo.org. rustdoc is useful not only when using a library, but also when working on that library itself. Granted, the two use cases are separate so this shouldn't be on by default.

I'm -1. You can use regular comments for internal documentation.

Navigation in a text editor is not nearly as easy as in rustdoc, where clicking on most things gets you to the documentation of that thing. This is invaluable when working on a large code base that you don’t know very well.

[drewcrawford]

+1. Writing a library, would benefit from being able to see private documentation while I work.

[drewcrawford]

It does look like the workaround

--no-defaults --passes "collapse-docs" --passes "unindent-comments"

works. (Need multiple invocations for "passes").

Recommend close.

[SimonSapin]

@drewcrawford are these rustdoc arguments? Can cargo doc be made to use them?

[drewcrawford]

They're rustdoc arguments. cargo doc can't be taught them, but I'd encourage you to comment in rust-lang/cargo#331 on that topic.