ZealDocsets - generate Zeal/Dash docsets from Mix dependencies

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Hi everyone,

I built a small Elixir library called zeal_docsets to generate offline Zeal/Dash docsets from the direct Hex dependencies of a Mix project.

The main goal is to make it easier to browse documentation locally for the libraries a project actually uses, based on mix.exs and the exact versions locked in mix.lock.

How it works:

  • reads the direct dependencies from mix.exs
  • resolves exact versions from mix.lock
  • downloads docs from hexdocs.pm
  • generates Zeal/Dash-compatible docsets
  • installs them into the Zeal docsets directory

Typical usage inside a project:
{:zeal_docsets, “~> 0.1.4”, only: [:dev, :test], runtime: false}
Then:
mix deps.get
mix zeal.docs . ~/.local/share/Zeal/Zeal/docsets --dev --test --force --concurrency 6

A few notes:

  • it currently works as a Mix task added to a project, not as a standalone global CLI
  • git/path dependencies are ignored
  • some packages on hexdocs.pm do not publish docs for all versions, so those can fail gracefully
    It has already been useful in my own workflow, especially for searching docs offline in Zeal across the dependencies of a real Phoenix project.
    Feedback is very welcome, especially around:
  • compatibility with different projects
  • docs/indexing edge cases
  • ideas for improving the workflow

Links:

Thanks!

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