# How to get rdoc documentation with merb\_generator? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [May 11, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-get-rdoc-documentation-with-merb-generator/196958 "2009-05-11T13:50:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gernot\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/54ee81/32.png) [@Gernot\_H](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Gernot_H)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-get-rdoc-documentation-with-merb-generator/196958/1 "2009-05-11T13:50:30Z")
Hi all, Our company spent a year programming with hardly any documentation. I’ve spent the last two weeks adding this in rdoc format to the controller and various library files. So now I need to generate the actual documentation. I ran into some trouble:- Our app has two branches historically. The older one has apps for which merb-gen generated an empty ‘doc’ directory (well, I don’t know if it was completely empty, but it gave me no issues). So I could run rdoc in the branch root and this generated documentation smoothly in ‘doc/rdoc’ no problem. GOOD! The newer branch has apps for which merb-gen generated a doc directory containing ‘rdoc’ and ‘rdoc/generators’ where there is a ‘merb\_generator.rb’ file. Now when I try to run rdoc from the branch root I get an error message telling me to specify the rdoc target directory to avoid overwriting existing documentation (currently there isn’t any, see below). OOPS! So I wonder how can doc/rdoc/generators/merb\_generator.rb be used to do the job instead (which I assume is why it is generated by merb-gen)… Reading the source code was interesting but unhelpful for my level of understanding of merb’s structure. I tried to run it with merb -r without any effect. Also I could not find a single tutorial or documentation online in the merb site, merbist, or dozens of merb-related blogs. Hmmm, I think I am missing something so basic everyone knows it! Any help appreciated. Many thanks in advance, Gernot