Intellij how to fix "javadoc: error - invalid flag: --source-path"

Question

Whenever I try to generate a JavaDoc in Intellij (Tools -> Generate JavaDoc), leave the settings on default (output directory is my documents folder) I get the following error:

/home/John/apps/java/bin/javadoc -protected -splitindex -d /home/John/Dokumente @/tmp/javadoc_args
javadoc: error - invalid flag: --source-path
Usage: javadoc [options] [packagenames] [sourcefiles] [@files]
[...]
"javadoc" finished with exit code 1

My JavaDoc Code:

/**
 * @author John
 *
 * Dialog for test.java in Administration -> Anwendung
 * Set affected timespan, employee and testflag.
 * Confirm via Buttonpress
 *
 */

Answer 1

Intellij IDEA runs Javadoc from your project SDK. If your project SDK is Java 8, the --source-path option is not supported, because this alternative spelling has been introduced with Java 9.

/tmp/javadoc_args is the options file generated by Intellij IDEA for your Javadoc run. In the "Run" dialog that lists the Javadoc command, the @/tmp/javadoc_args part should be a link that when clicked shows you the generated options in IDEA.

For me with Intellij IDEA 2021.2.3 Ultimate, the generated Javadoc options file does not use the --source-path option but lists each source file path separately. I think the reason for that is that I use a custom Scope for specifying the source files to document.