PYDOCSTYLE(1) pydocstyle PYDOCSTYLE(1)
NAME
pydocstyle - pydocstyle Documentation
pydocstyle is a static analysis tool for checking compliance with
Python docstring conventions.
pydocstyle supports most of PEP 257 out of the box, but it should not
be considered a reference implementation.
pydocstyle supports Python 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8.
1. Install
pip install pydocstyle
2. Run
$ pydocstyle test.py
test.py:18 in private nested class `meta`:
D101: Docstring missing
test.py:27 in public function `get_user`:
D300: Use """triple double quotes""" (found '''-quotes)
test:75 in public function `init_database`:
D201: No blank lines allowed before function docstring (found 1)
...
3. Fix your code :)
Contents:
USAGE
Installation
Use pip or easy_install:
pip install pydocstyle
Alternatively, you can use pydocstyle.py source file directly - it is
self-contained.
Command Line Interface
Usage
Usage: pydocstyle [options] [<file|dir>...]
Options:
--version show program's version number and exit
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-e, --explain show explanation of each error
-s, --source show source for each error
-d, --debug print debug information
-v, --verbose print status information
--count print total number of errors to stdout
--config=<path> use given config file and disable config discovery
--match=<pattern> check only files that exactly match <pattern> regular
expression; default is --match='(?!test_).*\.py' which
matches files that don't start with 'test_' but end
with '.py'
--match-dir=<pattern>
search only dirs that exactly match <pattern> regular
expression; default is --match-dir='[^\.].*', which
matches all dirs that don't start with a dot
--ignore-decorators=<decorators>
ignore any functions or methods that are decorated by
a function with a name fitting the <decorators>
regular expression; default is --ignore-decorators=''
which does not ignore any decorated functions.
Note:
When using --match, --match-dir or --ignore-decorators consider
whether you should use a single quote (') or a double quote ("),
depending on your OS, Shell, etc.
Error Check Options:
Only one of --select, --ignore or --convention can be specified. If
none is specified, defaults to `--convention=pep257`. These three
options select the "basic list" of error codes to check. If you wish
to change that list (for example, if you selected a known convention
but wish to ignore a specific error from it or add a new one) you can
use `--add-[ignore/select]` in order to do so.
--select=<codes> choose the basic list of checked errors by specifying
which errors to check for (with a list of comma-
separated error codes or prefixes). for example:
--select=D101,D2
--ignore=<codes> choose the basic list of checked errors by specifying
which errors to ignore out of all of the available
error codes (with a list of comma-separated error
codes or prefixes). for example: --ignore=D101,D2
--convention=<name>
choose the basic list of checked errors by specifying
an existing convention. Possible conventions: pep257,
numpy, google.
--add-select=<codes>
add extra error codes to check to the basic list of
errors previously set by --select, --ignore or
--convention.
--add-ignore=<codes>
ignore extra error codes by removing them from the
basic list previously set by --select, --ignore or
--convention.
NOTE:
When using any of the --select, --ignore, --add-select, or --add-ig-
nore command line flags, it is possible to pass a prefix for an er-
ror code. It will be expanded so that any code beginning with that
prefix will match. For example, running the command pydocstyle --ig-
nore=D4 will ignore all docstring content issues as their error
codes beginning with "D4" (i.e. D400, D401, D402, D403, and D404).
Return Code
┌──┬────────────────────────────┐
│0 │ Success - no violations │
├──┼────────────────────────────┤
│1 │ Some code violations were │
│ │ found │
├──┼────────────────────────────┤
│2 │ Illegal usage - see error │
│ │ message │
└──┴────────────────────────────┘
Configuration Files
pydocstyle supports ini-like and toml configuration files. In order
for pydocstyle to use a configuration file automatically, it must be
named one of the following options.
• setup.cfg
• tox.ini
• .pydocstyle
• .pydocstyle.ini
• .pydocstylerc
• .pydocstylerc.ini
• pyproject.toml
When searching for a configuration file, pydocstyle looks for one of
the file specified above in that exact order. ini-like configuration
files must have a [pydocstyle] section while toml configuration files
must have a [tool.pydocstyle] section. If a configuration file was not
found, pydocstyle keeps looking for one up the directory tree until one
is found or uses the default configuration.
NOTE:
toml configuration file support is only enabled if the toml python
package is installed. You can ensure that this is the case by in-
stalling the pydocstyle[toml] optional dependency.
NOTE:
For backwards compatibility purposes, pydocstyle supports configura-
tion files named .pep257, as well as section header [pep257]. How-
ever, these are considered deprecated and support will be removed in
the next major version.
Available Options
Not all configuration options are available in the configuration files.
Available options are:
• convention
• select
• ignore
• add_select
• add_ignore
• match
• match_dir
• ignore_decorators
See the Usage section for more information.
Inheritance
By default, when finding a configuration file, pydocstyle tries to in-
herit the parent directory's configuration and merge them to the local
ones.
The merge process is as follows:
• If one of select, ignore or convention was specified in the child
configuration - Ignores the parent configuration and set the new er-
ror codes to check. Otherwise, simply copies the parent checked error
codes.
• If add-ignore or add-select were specified, adds or removes the spec-
ified error codes from the checked error codes list.
• If match or match-dir were specified - use them. Otherwise, use the
parent's.
In order to disable this (useful for configuration files located in
your repo's root), simply add inherit=false to your configuration file.
NOTE:
If any of select, ignore or convention were specified in the CLI,
the configuration files will take no part in choosing which error
codes will be checked. match and match-dir will still take effect.
Example
[pydocstyle]
inherit = false
ignore = D100,D203,D405
match = .*\.py
In-file configuration
pydocstyle supports inline commenting to skip specific checks on spe-
cific functions or methods. The supported comments that can be added
are:
1. "# noqa" skips all checks.
2. "# noqa: D102,D203" can be used to skip specific checks. Note that
this is compatible with skips from flake8, e.g. # noqa:
D102,E501,D203.
For example, this will skip the check for a period at the end of a
function docstring:
>>> def bad_function(): # noqa: D400
... """Omit a period in the docstring as an exception"""
... pass
Usage with the pre-commit git hooks framework
pydocstyle can be included as a hook for pre-commit. The easiest way
to get started is to add this configuration to your .pre-commit-con-
fig.yaml:
- repo: https://github.com/pycqa/pydocstyle
rev: 6.1.1 # pick a git hash / tag to point to
hooks:
- id: pydocstyle
See the pre-commit docs for how to customize this configuration.
Checked-in python files will be passed as positional arguments so no
need to use --match=*.py. You can also use command line arguments in-
stead of configuration files to achieve the same effect with less
files.
- id: pydocstyle
args:
- --ignore=D100,D203,D405
# or multiline
- |-
--select=
D101,
D2
ERROR CODES
Grouping
┌─────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│Missing Docstrings │ │
└─────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
│D100 │ Missing docstring in pub- │
│ │ lic module │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D101 │ Missing docstring in pub- │
│ │ lic class │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D102 │ Missing docstring in pub- │
│ │ lic method │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D103 │ Missing docstring in pub- │
│ │ lic function │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D104 │ Missing docstring in pub- │
│ │ lic package │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D105 │ Missing docstring in magic │
│ │ method │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D106 │ Missing docstring in pub- │
│ │ lic nested class │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D107 │ Missing docstring in │
│ │ __init__ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│Whitespace Issues │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D200 │ One-line docstring should │
│ │ fit on one line with │
│ │ quotes │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D201 │ No blank lines allowed be- │
│ │ fore function docstring │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D202 │ No blank lines allowed af- │
│ │ ter function docstring │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D203 │ 1 blank line required be- │
│ │ fore class docstring │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D204 │ 1 blank line required af- │
│ │ ter class docstring │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D205 │ 1 blank line required be- │
│ │ tween summary line and de- │
│ │ scription │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D206 │ Docstring should be in- │
│ │ dented with spaces, not │
│ │ tabs │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D207 │ Docstring is under-in- │
│ │ dented │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D208 │ Docstring is over-indented │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D209 │ Multi-line docstring clos- │
│ │ ing quotes should be on a │
│ │ separate line │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D210 │ No whitespaces allowed │
│ │ surrounding docstring text │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D211 │ No blank lines allowed be- │
│ │ fore class docstring │
└─────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
│D212 │ Multi-line docstring sum- │
│ │ mary should start at the │
│ │ first line │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D213 │ Multi-line docstring sum- │
│ │ mary should start at the │
│ │ second line │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D214 │ Section is over-indented │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D215 │ Section underline is │
│ │ over-indented │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│Quotes Issues │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D300 │ Use """triple double │
│ │ quotes""" │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D301 │ Use r""" if any back- │
│ │ slashes in a docstring │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D302 │ Deprecated: Use u""" for │
│ │ Unicode docstrings │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│Docstring Content Issues │ │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D400 │ First line should end with │
│ │ a period │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D401 │ First line should be in │
│ │ imperative mood │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D401 │ First line should be in │
│ │ imperative mood; try │
│ │ rephrasing │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D402 │ First line should not be │
│ │ the function's "signature" │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D403 │ First word of the first │
│ │ line should be properly │
│ │ capitalized │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D404 │ First word of the doc- │
│ │ string should not be This │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D405 │ Section name should be │
│ │ properly capitalized │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D406 │ Section name should end │
│ │ with a newline │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D407 │ Missing dashed underline │
│ │ after section │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D408 │ Section underline should │
│ │ be in the line following │
│ │ the section's name │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D409 │ Section underline should │
│ │ match the length of its │
│ │ name │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D410 │ Missing blank line after │
│ │ section │
└─────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
│D411 │ Missing blank line before │
│ │ section │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D412 │ No blank lines allowed be- │
│ │ tween a section header and │
│ │ its content │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D413 │ Missing blank line after │
│ │ last section │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D414 │ Section has no content │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D415 │ First line should end with │
│ │ a period, question mark, │
│ │ or exclamation point │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D416 │ Section name should end │
│ │ with a colon │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D417 │ Missing argument descrip- │
│ │ tions in the docstring │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│D418 │ Function/ Method decorated │
│ │ with @overload shouldn't │
│ │ contain a docstring │
└─────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
Default conventions
Not all error codes are checked for by default. There are three con-
ventions that may be used by pydocstyle: pep257, numpy and google.
The pep257 convention (specified in PEP257), which is enabled by de-
fault in pydocstyle, checks for all of the above errors except for
D203, D212, D213, D214, D215, D404, D405, D406, D407, D408, D409, D410,
D411, D413, D415, D416 and D417.
The numpy convention added in v2.0.0 supports the numpydoc docstring
standard. This checks all of of the errors except for D107, D203, D212,
D213, D402, D413, D415, D416, and D417.
The google convention added in v4.0.0 supports the Google Python Style
Guide. This checks for all the errors except D203, D204, D213, D215,
D400, D401, D404, D406, D407, D408, D409 and D413.
These conventions may be specified using --convention=<name> when run-
ning pydocstyle from the command line or by specifying the convention
in a configuration file. See the cli_usage section for more details.
NOTE:
It makes no sense to check the same docstring for both numpy and
google conventions. Therefore, if we successfully detect that a doc-
string is in the numpy style, we don't check it for google.
The reason numpy style takes precedence over google is that the
heuristics of detecting it are better, and we don't want to enforce
users to provide external hints to pydocstyle in order to let it
know which style docstrings are written in.
Publicity
The D1xx group of errors deals with missing docstring in public con-
structs: modules, classes, methods, etc. It is important to note how
publicity is determined and what its effects are.
How publicity is determined
Publicity for all constructs is determined as follows: a construct is
considered public if -
1. Its immediate parent is public and
2. Its name does not start with a single or double underscore.
a. Note, names that start and end with a double underscore are
public (e.g. __init__.py).
A construct's immediate parent is the construct that contains it. For
example, a method's parent is a class object. A class' parent is usu-
ally a module, but might also be a function, method, etc. A module can
either have no parent, or it can have a parent that is a package.
In order for a construct to be considered public, its immediate parent
must also be public. Since this definition is recursive, it means that
all of its parents need to be public. The corollary is that if a con-
struct is considered private, then all of its descendants are also con-
sidered private. For example, a class called _Foo is considered pri-
vate. A method bar in _Foo is also considered private since its parent
is a private class, even though its name does not begin with a single
underscore.
Note, a module's parent is recursively checked upward until we reach a
directory in sys.path to avoid considering the complete filepath of a
module. For example, consider the module /_foo/bar/baz.py. If PYTHON-
PATH is set to /, then baz.py is private. If PYTHONPATH is set to
/_foo/, then baz.py is public.
Modules are parsed to look if __all__ is defined. If so, only those top
level constructs are considered public. The parser looks for __all__
defined as a literal list or tuple. As the parser doesn't execute the
module, any mutation of __all__ will not be considered.
How publicity affects error reports
The immediate effect of a construct being determined as private is that
no D1xx errors will be reported for it (or its children, as the previ-
ous section explains). A private method, for instance, will not gener-
ate a D102 error, even if it has no docstring.
However, it is important to note that while docstring are optional for
private construct, they are still required to adhere to your style
guide. So if a private module _foo.py does not have a docstring, it
will not generate a D100 error, but if it does have a docstring, that
docstring might generate other errors.
pydocstyle is a rename and continuation of pep257, a project created by
Vladimir Keleshev.
Maintained by Amir Rachum and Sambhav Kothari.
AUTHOR
Amir Rachum
COPYRIGHT
2021, Amir Rachum, Sambhav Kothari
6.1.1 2021-10-11 PYDOCSTYLE(1)
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