How mark the end of a @ref reference?

Question

I'm using Doxygen to document C++ code, and am writing a substantial amount of Doxygen doc for the code. In one place I'm making a list of groups in the code, and would like it to appear as follows:

• Control Module: the module that controls everything
• Slave Module: the module that is the slave of the Control Module

My documentation source looks like this:

- @ref CM: the module that controls everything
- @ref SM: the module that is the slave of the @CM

But, problem: Doxygen seems to be reading the reference name as CM:, not CM, and thus can't find the reference. So, somehow I need to tell Doxygen where the reference name ends. (For example, if I were using Bash, and wanted to echo a variable string with an "s" as a suffix, I'd use echo "${NOUN}s".)

As a workaround, I could add a space between the name and the subsequent colon, but that makes the resulting doc harder to read and I'd like to avoid it.

Under Special Commands, the Doxygen manual includes the following hopeful-sounding information:

Some commands have one or more arguments. Each argument has a certain range:

• If <sharp> braces are used the argument is a single word.
• If (round) braces are used the argument extends until the end of the line on which the command was found.
• If {curly} braces are used the argument extends until the next paragraph. Paragraphs are delimited by a blank line or by a section indicator.

OK, that's all fine and good, but the documentation doesn't say, and I can't figure out, where those braces are supposed to go. Around the argument alone? Around the entire command and argument? Neither works, and I can't come up with an alternative that does work.

So, how do I indicate the end of a reference name to Doxygen? And if braces are the answer, where do they go?

Answer 1

This works for Doxygen version 1.8.11:

\ref name "":

Apparently, the empty string triggers a fall-back to use the name argument before it.

Answer 2

The Doxygen documentation you quote is describing the syntax of the Doxygen documentation, not of sources to be parsed by your use of Doxygen.

In other words, if <sharp> braces are used when describing a command, it takes a single word; and so on.

Looking at the documentation of @ref:

\ref <name> ["(text)"]

The name argument is in "sharp braces," and so it's just a single word. Unfortunately, Doxygen seems to interpret : as part of that word. Your best bet would be to introduce a space:

@ref CM : the ...

You could also try whether a zero-width character would break the word recognition:

@ref CM‌: the ...