# Docker Documentation The source for Docker documentation is here under `sources/` and uses extended Markdown, as implemented by [MkDocs](http://mkdocs.org). The HTML files are built and hosted on `https://docs.docker.com`, and update automatically after each change to the master or release branch of [Docker on GitHub](https://github.com/docker/docker) thanks to post-commit hooks. The `docs` branch maps to the "latest" documentation and the `master` (unreleased development) branch maps to the "master" documentation. ## Contributing Be sure to follow the [contribution guidelines](../CONTRIBUTING.md). In particular, [remember to sign your work!](../CONTRIBUTING.md#sign-your-work) ## Getting Started Docker documentation builds are done in a Docker container, which installs all the required tools, adds the local `docs/` directory and builds the HTML docs. It then starts a HTTP server on port 8000 so that you can connect and see your changes. In the root of the `docker` source directory: $ make docs .... (lots of output) .... $ docker run --rm -it -e AWS_S3_BUCKET -p 8000:8000 "docker-docs:master" mkdocs serve Running at: http://0.0.0.0:8000/ Live reload enabled. Hold ctrl+c to quit. If you have any issues you need to debug, you can use `make docs-shell` and then run `mkdocs serve` ## Testing the links You can use `make docs-test` to generate a report of missing links that are referenced in the documentation - there should be none. ## Adding a new document New document (`.md`) files are added to the documentation builds by adding them to the menu definition in the `docs/mkdocs.yml` file. ## Style guide If you have questions about how to write for Docker's documentation (e.g., questions about grammar, syntax, formatting, styling, language, or tone) please see the [style guide](sources/contributing/docs_style-guide.md). If something isn't clear in the guide, please submit a PR to help us improve it. ## Working using GitHub's file editor Alternatively, for small changes and typos you might want to use GitHub's built- in file editor. It allows you to preview your changes right on-line (though there can be some differences between GitHub Markdown and [MkDocs Markdown](http://www.mkdocs.org/user-guide/writing-your-docs/)). Just be careful not to create many commits. And you must still [sign your work!](../CONTRIBUTING.md#sign-your-work) ## Branches **There are two branches related to editing docs**: `master` and `docs`. You should always edit the documentation on a local branch of the `master` branch, and send a PR against `master`. That way your fixes will automatically get included in later releases, and docs maintainers can easily cherry-pick your changes into the `docs` release branch. In the rare case where your change is not forward-compatible, you may need to base your changes on the `docs` branch. Also, now that we have a `docs` branch, we can keep the [http://docs.docker.com](http://docs.docker.com) docs up to date with any bugs found between Docker code releases. > **Warning**: When *reading* the docs, the > [http://docs-stage.docker.com](http://docs-stage.docker.com) documentation may > include features not yet part of any official Docker release. The `beta-docs` > site should be used only for understanding bleeding-edge development and > `docs.docker.com` (which points to the `docs` branch`) should be used for the > latest official release. ## Publishing Documentation To publish a copy of the documentation you need to have Docker up and running on your machine. You'll also need a `docs/awsconfig` file containing the settings you need to access the AWS bucket you'll be deploying to. The release script will create an s3 if needed, and will then push the files to it. [profile dowideit-docs] aws_access_key_id = IHOIUAHSIDH234rwf.... aws_secret_access_key = OIUYSADJHLKUHQWIUHE...... region = ap-southeast-2 The `profile` name must be the same as the name of the bucket you are deploying to - which you call from the `docker` directory: make AWS_S3_BUCKET=dowideit-docs docs-release This will publish _only_ to the `http://bucket-url/v1.2/` version of the documentation. If you're publishing the current release's documentation, you need to also update the root docs pages by running make AWS_S3_BUCKET=dowideit-docs BUILD_ROOT=yes docs-release > **Note:** > if you are using Boot2Docker on OSX and the above command returns an error, > `Post http:///var/run/docker.sock/build?rm=1&t=docker-docs%3Apost-1.2.0-docs_update-2: > dial unix /var/run/docker.sock: no such file or directory', you need to set the Docker > host. Run `$(boot2docker shellinit)` to see the correct variable to set. The command > will return the full `export` command, so you can just cut and paste. ## Cherry-picking documentation changes to update an existing release. Whenever the core team makes a release, they publish the documentation based on the `release` branch (which is copied into the `docs` branch). The documentation team can make updates in the meantime, by cherry-picking changes from `master` into any of the docs branches. For example, to update the current release's docs: git fetch upstream git checkout -b post-1.2.0-docs-update-1 upstream/docs # Then go through the Merge commit linked to PR's (making sure they apply to that release) # see https://github.com/docker/docker/commits/master git cherry-pick -x fe845c4 # Repeat until you have cherry picked everything you will propose to be merged git push upstream post-1.2.0-docs-update-1 Then make a pull request to merge into the `docs` branch, __NOT__ into master. Once the PR has the needed `LGTM`s, merge it, then publish to our beta server to test: git fetch upstream git checkout docs git reset --hard upstream/docs make AWS_S3_BUCKET=beta-docs.docker.io BUILD_ROOT=yes docs-release Then go to http://beta-docs.docker.io.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ to view your results and make sure what you published is what you wanted. When you're happy with it, publish the docs to our live site: make AWS_S3_BUCKET=docs.docker.com BUILD_ROOT=yes docs-release Test the uncached version of the live docs at http://docs.docker.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/ Note that the new docs will not appear live on the site until the cache (a complex, distributed CDN system) is flushed. This requires someone with S3 keys. Contact Docker (Sven Dowideit or John Costa) for assistance.