How to install Doxygen on Ubuntu?

Question

I downloaded doxygen-1.8.20.linux.bin.tar.gz here: https://www.doxygen.nl/download.html.

How to install it on Ubuntu 20.04?

Answer 1

This software is already packaged in the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS repository with modern and actual 1.8.17 version.

Simply open terminal and run

sudo apt-add-repository universe
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install doxygen

then use it as it was planned.

Answer 2

I downloaded doxygen-1.8.20.linux.bin.tar.gz here: https://www.doxygen.nl/download.html.

How to install it on Ubuntu

Download and install the latest version of doxygen and doxywizard (the GUI)

For any version of Ubuntu:

Tested on Ubuntu 22.04.

Download the latest version here: https://www.doxygen.nl/download.html

...or an older version or the latest version from the official GitHub releases page here: https://github.com/doxygen/doxygen/releases

Extract the .tar.gz file, make it and install it. Assuming the version you want is doxygen-1.10.0.linux.bin.tar.gz, the full download, make and install instructions would look like this:

# Create a directory where you want to download it
mkdir -p ~/Downloads/Install_Files/Doxygen
cd ~/Downloads/Install_Files/Doxygen
download it
wget https://github.com/doxygen/doxygen/releases/download/Release_1_10_0/doxygen-1.10.0.linux.bin.tar.gz
extract it
tar -xf doxygen-1.10.0.linux.bin.tar.gz
cd into the extracted directory
- Note: this directory already has a bin dir with prebuilt binary
executables.
cd doxygen-1.10.0
make and install it
sudo make
sudo make install
Ensure it's installed
Example output:

1.10.0 (ebc57c6dd303a980bd19dd74b8b61c8f3f5180ca)

doxygen --version
Check your man pages available by typing man doxy and pressing Tab twice.
Output:

doxygen      doxyindexer  doxysearch   doxywizard
View those man pages
man doxygen
man doxyindexer
man doxysearch
man doxywizard

The other tools that came with your doxygen download above are available in the doxygen-1.10.0/bin/ directory which you extracted from the .tar.gz file above. Get access to those executables by adding that dir to your PATH environment variable. To do that, add the following lines to the bottom of your ~/.bashrc file:

# Add doxygen to the PATH
DIR="$HOME/Downloads/Install_Files/Doxygen/doxygen-1.10.0/bin"
if [ -d "$DIR" ]; then
    PATH="$DIR:$PATH"
fi

Now re-source your ~/.bashrc file to apply the changes, and test the new executables:

# re-source your ~/.bashrc file
. ~/.bashrc
Install the libxapian.so.30 shared object library, required by
doxysearch.cgi
Note: If you are missing this library and you run doxysearch.cgi, you'll
see this error:

doxysearch.cgi: error while loading shared libraries: libxapian.so.30:
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libxapian30
Test the new doxygen executables from the doxygen-1.10.0/bin/ dir
doxygen --version  # should be the same as above
doxyindexer --version
doxysearch.cgi --version
doxywizard --version  # opens a GUI popup window with version info.

To run the GUI-based doxygen configuration file editor, run doxywizard at the command line.

Install GraphViz

doxygen requires GraphViz to generate call graphs and class diagrams via the dot utility. So install GraphViz, and the dot utility, like this:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install graphviz
Ensure it is now installed
dot -V  # shows the version

Use the doxygen executable

Basic Doxygen usage:

# Create a new Doxygen configuration file named Doxyfile
doxygen -g Doxyfile

Now edit the Doxyfile to your liking, either manually or in the GUI doxywizard tool by running doxywizard.

You can also use the doxywizard GUI to create and edit the Doxyfile configuration file. Just run path/to/doxygen-1.10.0/bin/doxywizard at the command line. See below for more info.

Then, run doxygen to generate the documentation (note that time just times how long it takes, and is optional):

time doxygen Doxyfile

Doxyfile configuration

For a lot more info. and recommended settings, see my notes in my eRCaGuy_dotfiles repo here: Doxygen installation and setup.

I also have these files there:

1. Doxyfile_CUSTOMIZED - my doxygen configuration file with my recommended settings after going through the "Setup and usage" section below.
2. Doxyfile_DEFAULT - the default doxyfile created by running doxygen -g Doxyfile.
3. Doxyfile_run_doxygen.sh - A script to:
   1. automatically generate Doxygen documentation for a C or C++ project
   2. store repo info. into a special readme at path "$OUTPUT_DIRECTORY/doxygen_info_README.md", next to the doxygen output, and
   3. open the index.html Doxygen output webpage in the Google Chrome web browser.