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
  --select=<codes>      choose the basic list of checked errors by specifying
                        which errors to check for (with a list of comma-
                        separated error codes). for example:
                        --select=D101,D202
  --ignore=<codes>      choose the basic list of checked errors by specifying
                        which errors to ignore (with a list of comma-separated
                        error codes). for example: --ignore=D101,D202
  --convention=<name>   choose the basic list of checked errors by specifying
                        an existing convention. Possible conventions: pep257
  --add-select=<codes>  amend the list of errors to check for by specifying
                        more error codes to check.
  --add-ignore=<codes>  amend the list of errors to check for by specifying
                        more error codes to ignore.
  --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

Return Code

0 Success - no violations
1 Some code violations were found
2 Illegal usage - see error message

Configuration Files

pydocstyle supports ini-like configuration files. In order for pydocstyle to use it, it must be named one of the following options, and have a [pydocstyle] section.

  • setup.cfg
  • tox.ini
  • .pydocstyle
  • .pydocstylerc

When searching for a configuration file, pydocstyle looks for one of the file specified above in that exact order. If a configuration file was not found, it keeps looking for one up the directory tree until one is found or uses the default configuration.

Note

For backwards compatibility purposes, pydocstyle supports configuration files named .pep257, as well as section header [pep257]. However, 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

See the Usage section for more information.

Inheritance

By default, when finding a configuration file, pydocstyle tries to inherit 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 error codes to check. Otherwise, simply copies the parent checked error codes.
  • If add-ignore or add-select were specified, adds or removes the specified 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