some doubts about the style of C code comments

Question

I have some doubts about the style of C code comments. like this:

/* \brief Creates a new shm pcm */

sometimes it like this:

/* \!brief Creates a new shm PCM */

What is the difference between the "\brief" and "\!brief"

Answer 1

Those are comments meant for DoxyGen , a system to generate documentation from the source code.

For the compiler, there is absolutely no difference at all.

DoxyGen expects /*! */ /*! */ and /** */ to flag that the comments are meant for it, see the documentation .

As albert mentioned, it looks like that in src/pcm/pcm.c some years back someone confused /*. \brief... /*. \brief... with /* \!brief