What does "///<exclude/>" mean?

Question

I have inherited a bunch of C# code. For a couple of method definitions I find ///<exclude/> as the only XMLDoc in front of it. I tried to Google the meaning of that but was not successful. Can someone please explain what that might mean?

Answer 1

In NDoc at least, it means that the XML documentation for this member should be excluded. From the documentation:

The <exclude/> tag directs NDoc to exclude the current item from documentation.

It's not clear to me whether this was originally NDoc-specific, but it does also appear to be supported by Sandcastle (in that it's in the Sandcastle XML comments guide).

Answer 2

From the Sandcastle Help File Builder documentation:

A namespace is excluded via the Namespace Summaries property or an item is excluded because its XML comments include an <exclude /> tag. This information is merged automatically with the API filter settings. To alter these items, you will need to use the Namespace Summaries property or remove the tag from the item's XML comments.

An official reply:

A way to exclude documentation?

And more info about the behavior:

Problems with missing members and tag