fireproofsocks

fireproofsocks

I understand that the @moduledoc text is what gets shown when you type in mix help your.task:

Is there a way to show that information manually? For example, if my task has some required arguments or options, it’s possible to show an error using something like Mix.shell().error("Invalid input.), but I think it would be nicer in some cases to print out the usage info (just like you might encounter when you misuse a linux utility on the command line).

Thanks!

Showing Posts 1 to 9

NobbZ

NobbZ

You can just IO.puts @moduledoc.

fireproofsocks

fireproofsocks OP

Digging around in the source code for Mix.Tasks.Help, I can see that functions for this are not easily exposed.. for some reason, I’m having trouble calling the functions in IO.ANSI.Docs, e.g.

warning: IO.ANSI.Docs.print_markdown/2 is undefined or private.

What’s going on there?

fireproofsocks

fireproofsocks OP

Yeah, that’s what I’m doing so far, but it would be nicer to take advantage of the formatting.

josevalim

josevalim

Creator of Elixir
Mix.Task.run("help", ["name.of.your.task"])
axelson

axelson

Scenic Core Team

Also do note that IO.ANSI.Docs is @moduledoc false which means it is an internal implementation detail of Elixir and you should not be calling it from your code.

https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/blob/da9b9014575c1930049235b0509657b2bde47319/lib/elixir/lib/io/ansi/docs.ex#L2

NobbZ

NobbZ

Not sure which sources you are digging, but at least on 1.10.2 I wasn’t able to find that function.

And as already has been said, the module is considered “private” and can change without notice.

fireproofsocks

fireproofsocks OP

I thought @moduledoc false only indicated that documentation pages would not be generated. I do that on my own quickie projects where documentation isn’t necessary. It does not prevent me from calling the public functions in the module, however, so I am genuinely confused as to why I can’t call those functions.

NobbZ

NobbZ

@moduledoc false and @doc false are conventions for internally used functions that need to be exposed because they are used through the project, but are also not part of the public interface of the library.

The reason why you can’t call the function, is because the source code you looked at does probably not match the elixir version you have installed.

This is the reason why the module is marked “internal”, this gives the core team the flexibility to change it as necessary without needing to think about backwards compatibility.

fireproofsocks

fireproofsocks OP

Yeah, I’m looking at the latest master branch of the Elixir source… that must be different than the 1.10.1 code that I am actually running…

— All posts loaded —

Where Next? Top

Trending in Questions Top

katta
I having some trouble figuring out if I have set myself too strict of standards for my production server. Currently I can handle 75% of r...
New
brecabral
Documentation While reading the Scoped Routes section, I noticed that the documentation currently refers to a problem without explainin...
New
achenet
Hello, I’m trying to build a basic Phoenix web-app, and I’d like to use Tailwind. However, when I launch mix phx.server, I get an error...
New
kpanic
Hi everyone, I am toying with the idea of building a “match maker” for giving personal help to people that wants to start coding. I sta...
New
velrest
So my question is quite simple and i have found no conclusive answer on forum, google or AI. Should we use :erlang.float for Integer to ...
New
asweet-confluent
I recently noticed that Elixir’s Logger defaults its primary log level to :debug when no :logger, :level application configuration is pre...
New
mnkhod
So i have been using ash framework for a while and i love it. However currently the issue im having with ash framework is the error handl...
New

Other Trending Topics Top

GenericJam
Edit: 2026 May 15 - This post is archived. Mob is alive!! Main docs: mob v0.7.11 — Documentation A bit of explanation for the slightly c...
New
JesseHerrick
Hey, I’m Jesse and I’m the main contributor behind Dexter, a full-featured, lightning-fast Elixir LSP optimized for large codebases. It s...
New
mudasobwa
I am happy to introduce the very α version of the new programming language compiled to BEAM. Welcome Cure. It has literally three kille...
New
garrison
Hobbes is a low-level distributed database for the Elixir programming language. Hobbes provides a simple, safe, and scalable storage lay...
New
mhanberg
Hi everyone! The first release candidate for the Expert language server project is now available! We’ve published a press release detai...
New
budgie
A little off-topic, but I feel like people here have a good head on their shoulders. I used to be quite good at making software. Was luc...
New

We're in Beta

About us Mission Statement

Options

Thread Display Mode




Thread Preview

Skip Thread Previews