Input / Output
![../../_images/inout.drawio.png](../../_images/inout.drawio.png)
Fig. 1 Input / output
dox_trace is a Sphinx extension, which means most of the input and output goes through the Sphinx API.
File System
Sphinx parses RST files which may contain specifications. For every found specification, callbacks are executed which are registered by dox_trace during the init-phase of the extension.
Attribute values for specifications can be predefined in a properties file.
These specifications are converted to Docutils nodes and stored by Sphinx in a cache.
The cache is used by dox_trace to resolve references and to export the data to Dim files.
This export is only done if the optional configuration parameter
dox_trace_dim_root
is set in the Sphinx configuration.Sphinx generates HTML files representing the RST files including the specifications.
Shell
dox_trace has no command line option, but the exit code of Sphinx is != 0 whenever it detects an error.
If an error is detected, dox_trace uses console output to provide more information about the error.