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Generating Reference Pages for Kubernetes Components and Tools

This page shows how to use the update-imported-docs tool to generate reference documentation for tools and components in the Kubernetes and Federation repositories.

Before you begin

Getting two repositories

If you don’t already have the kubernetes/website repository, get it now:

mkdir $GOPATH/src
cd $GOPATH/src
go get github.com/kubernetes/website

Determine the base directory of your clone of the kubernetes/website repository. For example, if you followed the preceding step to get the repository, your base directory is $GOPATH/src/github.com/kubernetes/website. The remaining steps refer to your base directory as <web-base>.

If you plan on making changes to the ref docs, and if you don’t already have the kubernetes/kubernetes repository, get it now:

mkdir $GOPATH/src
cd $GOPATH/src
go get github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes

Determine the base directory of your clone of the kubernetes/kubernetes repository. For example, if you followed the preceding step to get the repository, your base directory is $GOPATH/src/github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes. The remaining steps refer to your base directory as <k8s-base>.

Note: If you only need to generate, but not change, the reference docs, you don’t need to manually get the kubernetes/kubernetes repository. When you run the update-imported-docs tool, it automatically clones the the kubernetes/kubernetes repository.

Editing the Kubernetes source code

The reference documentation for the Kubernetes components and tools is automatically generated from the Kubernetes source code. If you want to change the reference documentation, the first step is to change one or more comments in the Kubernetes source code. Make the change in your local kubernetes/kubernetes repository, and then submit a pull request to the master branch of github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes.

PR 56942 is an example of a pull request that makes changes to comments in the Kubernetes source code.

Monitor your pull request, and respond to reviewer comments. Continue to monitor your pull request until it is merged into the master branch of the kubernetes/kubernetes repository.

Cherry picking your change into a release branch

Your change is now in the master branch, which is used for development of the next Kubernetes release. If you want your change to appear in the docs for a Kubernetes version that has already been released, you need to propose that your change be cherry picked into the release branch.

For example, suppose the master branch is being used to develop Kubernetes 1.10, and you want to backport your change to the release-1.9 branch. For instructions on how to do this, see Propose a Cherry Pick.

Monitor your cherry-pick pull request until it is merged into the release branch.

Note: Proposing a cherry pick requires that you have permission to set a label and a milestone in your pull request. If you don’t have those permissions, you will need to work with someone who can set the label and milestone for you.

Overview of update-imported-docs

The update-imported-docs tool performs these steps:

  1. Clone the kubernetes/kubernetes repository.
  2. Run several scripts under kubernetes/kubernetes/hack. These scripts generate Markdown files and place the files under kubernetes/kubernetes/docs.
  3. Copy the generated Markdown files to a local clone of the kubernetes/website repository under kubernetes/website/docs/reference/generated.
  4. Clone the kubernetes/federation repository.
  5. Run several scripts under kubernetes/federation/hack. These scripts generate Markdown files and place the files under kubernetes/federation/docs.
  6. Copy the generated Markdown files to a local clone of the kubernetes/website repository under kubernetes/website/docs/reference/generated.

After the Markdown files are in your local clone of the kubernetes/website repository, you can submit them in a pull request to kubernetes/website.

Setting the branch

Open <web-base>/update-imported-docs/config.yaml for editing.

Set the value of branch to the Kubernetes release that you want to document. For example, if you want to generate docs for the Kubernetes 1.9 release, set branch to release-1.9.

repos:
- name: kubernetes
  remote: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes.git
  branch: release-1.9

Setting sources and destinations

The update-imported-docs tool uses src and dst fields in config.yaml to know which files to copy from the kubernetes/kubernetes repository and where to place those files in the kubernetes/website repository.

For example, suppose you want the tool to copy the kube-apiserver.md file from the docs/admin directory of the kubernetes/kubernetes repository to the docs/reference/generated/ directory of the kubernetes/website repository. Then you would include a src and dst in your config.yaml file like this:

repos:
- name: kubernetes
  remote: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes.git
  branch: release-1.9
  files:
  - src: docs/admin/kube-apiserver.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kube-apiserver.md
  ...

The configuration is similar for files in the kubernetes/federation repository. Here’s an example that configures the tool to copy kubefed_init.md from the docs/admin directory of the kubernetes/federation repository to the docs/reference/generated directory of the kubernetes/website repository:

- name: federation
  remote: https://github.com/kubernetes/federation.git
#  # Change this to a release branch when federation has release branches.
  branch: master
  files:
  - src: docs/admin/kubefed_init.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kubefed_init.md
  ...

Here’s an example a config.yaml file that shows the sources and destinations of all the Markdown files that were generated and copied by the update-imported-docs tool at the beginning of the Kubernetes 1.9 release.

repos:
- name: kubernetes
  remote: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes.git
  branch: release-1.9
  files:
  - src: docs/admin/cloud-controller-manager.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/cloud-controller-manager.md
  - src: docs/admin/kube-apiserver.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kube-apiserver.md
  - src: docs/admin/kube-controller-manager.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kube-controller-manager.md
  - src: docs/admin/kubelet.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kubelet.md
  - src: docs/admin/kube-proxy.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kube-proxy.md
  - src: docs/admin/kube-scheduler.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kube-scheduler.md
  - src: docs/user-guide/kubectl/kubectl.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kubectl/kubectl.md
- name: federation
  remote: https://github.com/kubernetes/federation.git
#  # Change this to a release branch when federation has release branches.
  branch: master
  files:
  - src: docs/admin/federation-apiserver.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/federation-apiserver.md
  - src: docs/admin/federation-controller-manager.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/federation-controller-manager.md
  - src: docs/admin/kubefed_init.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kubefed_init.md
  - src: docs/admin/kubefed_join.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kubefed_join.md
  - src: docs/admin/kubefed.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kubefed.md
  - src: docs/admin/kubefed_options.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kubefed_options.md
  - src: docs/admin/kubefed_unjoin.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kubefed_unjoin.md
  - src: docs/admin/kubefed_version.md
    dst: docs/reference/generated/kubefed_version.md

Running the update-imported-docs tool

Now that your config.yaml file contains your sources and destinations, you can run the update-imported-docs tool:

cd <web-base>
go get ./update-imported-docs
go run update-imported-docs/update-imported-docs.go

Adding and committing changes in kubernetes/website

List the files that were generated and copied to the kubernetes/website repository:

cd <web-base>
git status

The output shows the new and modified files. For example, the output might look like this:

...
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/cloud-controller-manager.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/federation-apiserver.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/federation-controller-manager.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/kube-apiserver.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/kube-controller-manager.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/kube-proxy.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/kube-scheduler.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/kubectl/kubectl.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/kubefed.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/kubefed_init.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/kubefed_join.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/kubefed_options.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/kubefed_unjoin.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/kubefed_version.md
    modified:   docs/reference/generated/kubelet.md

Run git add and git commit to commit the files.

Creating a pull request

Create a pull request to the kubernetes/website repository. Monitor your pull request, and respond to review comments as needed. Continue to monitor your pull request until it is merged.

A few minutes after your pull request is merged, your updated reference topics will be visible in the published documentation.

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