Overview

Every public class and method gets JavaDoc. It is the primary reference most consumers read (the generated JavaDoc site), and it is what Checkstyle’s JavadocType/JavadocStyle checks look for on public scope — see Java Style & Tooling for what is (and is not) automatically checked.

File Header

Every source file opens with the project’s LGPL license header:

/*
 *
 * The DbUnit Database Testing Framework
 * Copyright (C)2002-2026, DbUnit.org
 *
 * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
 * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
 * version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 *
 * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 * Lesser General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
 * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
 *
 */

The copyright line’s end year and holder reflect the file’s current state (confirmed against a class added in 2026: Copyright ©2002-2026, DbUnit.org) — copy the header from a recently-touched file rather than an old one, so the year isn’t stale on arrival.

Style Rules

For the topic sentence of a class or method, each @param, and @return: write complete sentences, start with a capital letter, and end with a period.

@since

Tag the dbUnit version a class or method was introduced in with @since. This lets users and developers track when a piece of API appeared.

Style Mechanics

Use {@link} to cross-reference other types and members rather than plain text, <p> to open a new paragraph, and <pre> for runnable code fragments. For example (from CachingConnectionProvider):

/**
 * Caches a single {@link IDatabaseConnection} so that it - and the table
 * metadata it accumulates - can be reused across many test methods instead of
 * being rebuilt on every call.
 *
 * <p>
 * A {@link Callable} supplies the connection-creation logic; the factory is
 * only invoked when there is no cached connection yet, or when the
 * previously cached one is no longer {@linkplain Connection#isValid(int)
 * alive}.
 */

Prefer this descriptive, cross-linked prose style over a bare restatement of the signature — explain why and when, not just what, since the signature already says what.