Open documentation for a given crate

[kornelski]

I often want to see documentation for a dependency (including build dependencies), but it's cumbersome to open it — I have to go to crates.io, find the dependency, and then follow its Documentation link.

Cargo already knows this link from metadata, so it could open the documentation for me.

I'd expect it to work like this:

cargo doc crate-name

Such functionality is in npm npm docs package-name.

[steveklabnik]

I have to go to crates.io, find the dependency, and then follow its Documentation link.

Doesn't cargo doc already document dependencies? so it should be cargo doc --open, click the link on the left hand sidebar.

[kornelski]

1. It doesn't do that for build dependencies.
2. I'm hoping for documentation link to provide more than that (i.e. a tutorial, prose, examples). I don't like rustdoc output, because it has very low signal to noise ratio (no logical order, everything exposed at once, unintelligible dump of all trait's methods)

[steveklabnik]

It doesn't do that for build dependencies.

Ah, this sounds like a bug, then, and probably what this ticket should focus on.

I'm hoping for documentation link to provide more than that (i.e. a tutorial, prose, examples)

This is covered by #739

[kornelski]

I assume it's intentional, since build and dev dependencies are not part of crate's interface.

I would not like build/dev dependencies included in cargo doc output if I were to publish it on a website for others, since the extra dependencies would be a distraction. I only need to consume, not publish their docs.

[alexcrichton]

Yes it's intentional that build-dependencies don't show up in Cargo by default, but I think this works?

cargo doc -p gcc --open

Does that work for your use case?

[kornelski]

Thanks! That works. I did not notice that in the help file, because I looked for "crate" and glossed over SPEC.

[prasannavl]

Does the linked source code work with this method though? The last I checked, it doesn't. Clicking src just leads me an empty page. Perhaps, that has to be created as a separate issue?