Generate Ddoc without compiling?

[Jonathan M. Wilbur]

On Monday, 21 May 2018 at 12:53:47 UTC, Steven Schveighoffer 
wrote:
> On 5/21/18 8:37 AM, Jonathan M. Wilbur wrote:
>> I want to put in a feature request, but I want to gauge 
>> whether it is even feasible or not, but a little background 
>> first:
>> 
>> I am trying to create a Makefile to build the HTML 
>> documentation for a Dlang project. I would like to be able to 
>> update a single HTML file if the corresponding source changes, 
>> without having to recompile all of the others. My rule looks 
>> like this:
>> 
>> $(DCOMPILER) -o- -op -d -Df$@ $<
>> 
>> But that does not work, because some of the compiled modules 
>> import other modules, and the rule fails because DCOMPILER 
>> can't intelligently pull in the other source files. I think 
>> requiring a complete compile of all source to build the HTML 
>> documentation is a big impediment to making D highly scalable.
>> 
>> Having said that, I don't see why it would be technically 
>> impossible to make DMD build the HTML (almost) without regard 
>> to the validity of the source code. Is this possible? And 
>> moreover: *should* it be done? Is it a bad idea?
>> 
>> 
>
> 1. I don't think it requires compiling all other files.
> 2. You may want to use -c (not sure what the exact error is you 
> are receiving)
> 3. You may need to specify where the other includes are with -I 
> (not sure what the exact error is you are receiving).
>
> I'm fairly certain D can do what you want it to do. But 
> difficult to tell without more context/example.
>
> -Steve

So it seems that I still have to include all of the interfaces 
(at least; source would work too), but I got it to work by adding 
the -I operator:

html_documentation : $(htmldocs)
$(htmldocs) : 
$(SRCDIR)/documentation/html/source/$(PACKAGE_SLUG)/%.html : 
$(SRCDIR)/source/$(PACKAGE_SLUG)/%.d
	$(DCOMPILER) -o- -op -d -I$(SRCDIR)/source 
$(SRCDIR)/source/macros.ddoc -Df$@ $<

Since I am not producing binaries (per the "-o-" flag), I don't 
know if it is still doing all the work of compiling and just not 
writing the files to disk, or if it is just doing some basic 
lexing, but this is at least acceptable.

Thanks for getting my noggin joggin'!