From: Eric Hodel <drbrain@...7.net>
Date: 2011-02-12T04:05:01+09:00
Subject: Re: Telling rdoc1.9 not delete the doc directory when publishing new documenation

On Feb 11, 2011, at 6:46 AM, Zeno Davatz wrote:

> Hi
> 
> I know that with
> 
> rdoc1.9 --op doc3
> 
> I can set a specific doc directory where rdoc1.9 should publish the
> documentation to.
> 
> BUT:
> 
> rdoc1.9 always _deletes_ the old doc dir before publishing the new one!
> So If I got another doc Directory there and that has other stuff in it
> then I do not appreciate it when that directory is just overwritten or
> deleted with out myself being asked if I want it deleted or not.
> 
> So my question is: Is there any possibility to tell rdoc1.9 not to
> delete any existing doc directory?

The rdoc command has never deleted directories.  RDoc has always preserved existing directories that were not used for rdoc output.

The latest gem does not:

$ gem unpack rdoc
Unpacked gem: '/Users/ehodel/Work/git/rdoc/tmp/rdoc-3.5.2'
$ cd rdoc-3.5.2/
./rdoc-3.5.2/
$ grep -r \\.rm lib
lib/rdoc/gauntlet.rb:    FileUtils.rm_rf dir if File.exist? dir
lib/rdoc/gauntlet.rb:      FileUtils.rm_rf dir
$

Nor does the version shipped with 1.9.2-p136 (rdoc 2.5.8)

$ ~/.multiruby/install/1.9.2-p136/bin/ruby -v
ruby 1.9.2p136 (2010-12-25 revision 30365) [x86_64-darwin10.6.0]
$ ~/.multiruby/install/1.9.2-p136/bin/gem which rdoc
/Users/ehodel/.multiruby/install/1.9.2-p136/lib/ruby/1.9.1/rdoc.rb
$ cd /Users/ehodel/.multiruby/install/1.9.2-p136/lib/ruby/1.9.1/
$ grep -r \\.rm rdoc.rb rdoc
$

Nor does the version shipped with 1.9.1-p378 (rdoc 2.2.2)

$ ~/.multiruby/install/1.9.1-p378/bin/ruby -v
ruby 1.9.1p378 (2010-01-10 revision 26273) [i386-darwin10.6.0]
$ cd /Users/ehodel/.multiruby/install/1.9.1-p378/lib/ruby/1.9.1/
$ grep -r \\.rm rdoc.rb rdoc
rdoc/ri/writer.rb:    FileUtils.rm_rf(path_to_dir(class_desc.full_name))

This rm_rf is called by the (old) ri generator when it is merging classes.  The class is immediately replaced by the merged copy.

Same for ruby 1.8.7-p330 (rdoc 1.0.1)

$ ~/.multiruby/install/1.8.7-p330/bin/ruby -v
ruby 1.8.7 (2010-12-23 patchlevel 330) [i686-darwin10.6.0]
$ cd ~/.multiruby/install/1.8.7-p330/lib/ruby/1.8/
$ grep -r \\.rm rdoc
rdoc/ri/ri_writer.rb:      FileUtils.rm_rf(path_to_dir(class_desc.full_name))

(no rdoc.rb in 1.0.1)

The RDoc rake task adds a clobber task for deleting the rdoc output directory.  Since the files are generated this should not be a problem.