# Share Doxygen Docs — C and C++ API Docs at a URL

Canonical: https://commareports.com/share-doxygen-docs
Published: 2026-08-30

> Doxygen writes html/ with thousands of files and no host. Publish it in one drag: search intact, call graphs intact, one link per release, and comments on the function that needs explaining.

# Share Doxygen docs

Doxygen is the default answer for documenting a C or C++ codebase, and it
produces an output shape that is uniquely hostile to sharing: an `html/`
directory containing several thousand files, which is meaningful only when
served over HTTP.

For an open-source project, that's a Pages deploy and you're done. For an
internal library — which is where most Doxygen lives — you get a choice
between standing up an internal web server, emailing a 40 MB zip, or
telling people to run `doxygen` themselves.

## Generate it

```bash
doxygen Doxyfile          # → html/
```

```
html/
├── index.html
├── classFoo.html            # one page per class
├── functions.html  files.html
├── doxygen.css  doxygen.svg
├── search/                  # the client-side search index
└── *.png / *.svg            # call graphs, inheritance diagrams
```

## Drop the folder in

Drag `html/` (or a zip of it) into [Comma](https://commareports.com/):

- `index.html` becomes the **report body** — the page carrying the comment
  layer.
- Class pages, stylesheets, the search index and the graph images upload
  alongside it, with relative references rewritten to the uploaded copies.
- Scripts run inside a sandboxed iframe (`allow-scripts`, no
  `allow-same-origin`), so the **client-side search** and the collapsible
  member sections keep working.

Two Doxyfile settings matter here:

```
SERVER_BASED_SEARCH = NO     # the CGI backend won't exist; keep search client-side
DOT_IMAGE_FORMAT    = svg    # graphs stay sharp when zoomed
```

## Keep it under the asset limit

This is the one real constraint. A report holds **500 assets**, and a
large C++ project's Doxygen output blows past that without trying.

The fix is also good documentation practice — narrow the input to the
public surface people actually consume:

```
INPUT           = include/
EXCLUDE         = src/internal/
SOURCE_BROWSER  = NO         # drops one generated page per source file
```

Docs scoped to the public headers are both publishable and more useful
than docs that also describe every static helper.

## From the release job

```bash
doxygen Doxyfile

curl -fsS -X PATCH "https://commareports.com/api/v1/reports/$REPORT_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COMMA_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$(jq -n --rawfile html html/index.html \
        --arg title "API docs — $VERSION" \
        '{title: $title, html: $html}')"
```

The API is JSON-only, so the class pages and graphs go up through
`POST /api/v1/reports/$REPORT_ID/assets` as base64 — one call per file,
worth scripting once. See the [API reference](/docs/api) and
[publishing from CI](/ci).

`PATCH`ing one saved id gives the library a permanent URL that tracks the
current release, with a revision per publish — a readable record of how
the public API changed, which is a better answer to "when did that
signature change?" than `git log` over a header.

## Docs review, on the docs

Doxygen comments rot in a specific way: the signature changes, the
`@param` block doesn't, and nobody notices because nobody reads the
generated output. Publishing it is what makes the rot visible.

Select the description, leave a thread — "this says it returns NULL on
error, it returns -1" — and it stays anchored to that function across
docs builds. See [commenting on HTML](/comment-on-html).

## Who can see it

Per report: private, your team, any signed-in user with the link, or
public. An internal library gets a team report; a partner SDK gets a
link-only one for the integration window. Domain-gating, password gates
and expiring links are Enterprise. See
[sharing & access control](/docs/sharing).

## Limits

- **Entry HTML: 5 MB.** Assets: 25 MB per file, **250 MB and 500 files
  total** — the binding constraint for Doxygen; scope `INPUT` accordingly.
- **Scripts run, sandboxed** — no same-origin access.
- **60 requests/minute per token.**

## Try it

Comma is free — unlimited reports, unlimited commenters, unlimited
revision history.

**[Publish Doxygen docs →](https://commareports.com/)**

### Related

- [Share Javadoc](/share-javadoc) · [Share TypeDoc output](/share-typedoc)
- [Share Sphinx docs](/share-sphinx-docs) · [Share a MkDocs site](/share-mkdocs-site)
- [Share OpenAPI docs](/share-openapi-docs)
- [GitHub Pages alternatives](/alternatives/github-pages-alternatives)