This is an MIT licensed flake8 plugin for validating Python docstrings markup as reStructuredText (RST) using the Python library docutils
. It is available to install from the Python Package Index (PyPI).
This is based heavily off pydocstyle
(which is also MIT licensed), which has a flake8 plugin called flake8-docstrings
, see:
The reStructuredText (RST) validation is done by calling docutils
via Todd Wolfson's restructuredtext-lint
code:
I recommend you also install the related flake8-docstrings plugin, which brings the pydocstyle checks into flake8. This checks things like missing docstrings, and other recommendations from PEP 257 Docstring Conventions.
You may also wish to install the related flake8 plugin flake8-rst which can check the Python style of doctest formatted snippets of Python code within your *.rst
files or the docstrings within your *.py
files.
Early versions of flake8 assumed a single character prefix for the validation codes, which became problematic with collisions in the plugin ecosystem. Since v3.0, flake8 has supported longer prefixes therefore this plugin uses RST
as its prefix.
Internally we use docutils
for RST validation, which has this to say in PEP258:
- Level-0, "DEBUG": an internal reporting issue. There is no effect on the processing. Level-0 system messages are handled separately from the others.
- Level-1, "INFO": a minor issue that can be ignored. There is little or no effect on the processing. Typically level-1 system messages are not reported.
- Level-2, "WARNING": an issue that should be addressed. If ignored, there may be minor problems with the output. Typically level-2 system messages are reported but do not halt processing
- Level-3, "ERROR": a major issue that should be addressed. If ignored, the output will contain unpredictable errors. Typically level-3 system messages are reported but do not halt processing
- Level-4, "SEVERE": a critical error that must be addressed. Typically level-4 system messages are turned into exceptions which halt processing. If ignored, the output will contain severe errors.
The docutils
"DEBUG" level messages are not reported, and the plugin currently ignores the "INFO" level messages.
Within each category, the individual messages are mapped to flake8
codes using one hundred times the level. i.e. Validation codes RST4##
are severe or critical errors in RST validation, RST3##
are major errors, RST2##
are warnings, and while currently not yet used, RST1##
would be information only.
Warning codes:
Code | Description |
---|---|
RST201 | Block quote ends without a blank line; unexpected unindent. |
RST202 | Bullet list ends without a blank line; unexpected unindent. |
RST203 | Definition list ends without a blank line; unexpected unindent. |
RST204 | Enumerated list ends without a blank line; unexpected unindent. |
RST205 | Explicit markup ends without a blank line; unexpected unindent. |
RST206 | Field list ends without a blank line; unexpected unindent. |
RST207 | Literal block ends without a blank line; unexpected unindent. |
RST208 | Option list ends without a blank line; unexpected unindent. |
RST210 | Inline strong start-string without end-string. |
RST211 | Blank line required after table. |
RST212 | Title underline too short. |
RST213 | Inline emphasis start-string without end-string. |
RST214 | Inline literal start-string without end-string. |
RST215 | Inline interpreted text or phrase reference start-string without end-string. |
RST216 | Multiple roles in interpreted text (both prefix and suffix present; only one allowed). |
RST217 | Mismatch: both interpreted text role suffix and reference suffix. |
RST218 | Literal block expected; none found. |
RST219 | Inline substitution_reference start-string without end-string. |
RST299 | Previously unseen warning, not yet assigned a unique code. |
Major error codes:
Code | Description |
---|---|
RST301 | Unexpected indentation. |
RST302 | Malformed table. |
RST303 | Unknown directive type "XXX". |
RST304 | Unknown interpreted text role "XXX". |
RST305 | Undefined substitution referenced: "XXX". |
RST306 | Unknown target name: "XXX". |
RST399 | Previously unseen major error, not yet assigned a unique code. |
Severe or critial error codes:
Code | Description |
---|---|
RST401 | Unexpected section title. |
RST499 | Previously unseen severe error, not yet assigned a unique code. |
Codes ending 99
, for example RST499
, indicate a previously unseen validation error for which we have yet to assign a unique validation code in the assocated range, which would be RST4##
in this example. If you see one of these codes, please report it on our GitHub issue tracker, ideally with an example we can use for testing.
Codes starting RST9##
indicate there was a problem parsing the Python file in order to extract the docstrings, or in processing the contents.
Code | Description (and notes) |
---|---|
RST900 | Failed to load file (e.g. unicode encoding issue under Python 2) |
RST901 | Failed to parse file |
RST902 | Failed to parse __all__ entry |
RST903 | Failed to lint docstring (e.g. unicode encoding issue under Python 2) |
Python 3.6 or later is recommended, but Python 2.7 and Python 3.3 onwards are also supported.
We recommend installing the plugin using pip, which handles the dependencies:
$ pip install flake8-rst-docstrings
Alternatively, if you are using the Anaconda packaging system, the following command will install the plugin with its dependencies:
$ conda install -c conda-forge flake8-rst-docstrings
The new validator should be automatically included when using flake8
which may now report additional validation codes starting with RST
(as defined above). For example:
$ flake8 example.py
You can request only the RST
codes be shown using:
$ flake8 --select RST example.py
Similarly you might add particular RST validation codes to your flake8 configuration file's select or ignore list.
Note in addition to the RST
prefix alone you can use partial codes like RST2
meaning RST200
, RST201
, ... and so on.
We assume you are familiar with flake8 configuration.
If you are using Sphinx or other extensions to reStructuredText, you will want to define any additional directives or roles you are using to avoid false positive RST303
and RST304
violations.
You can set these at the command line if you wish:
$ flake8 --rst-roles class,func,ref --rst-directives envvar,exception ...
We recommend recording these settings in your flake8
configuration, for example in your .flake8
, setup.cfg
, or tox.ini
file, e.g.:
[flake8]
rst-roles =
class,
func,
ref,
rst-directives =
envvar,
exception,
Note that flake8 allows splitting the comma separated lists over multiple lines, and allows including of hash comment lines.
Version | Released | Changes |
---|---|---|
v0.0.13 | 2019-12-26 | - Adds RST218 and RST219 . |
v0.0.12 | 2019-11-18 | - Adds RST213 to RST217 . |
v0.0.11 |
2019-08-07 |
|
v0.0.10 |
2019-06-17 |
|
v0.0.9 |
2019-04-22 |
|
v0.0.8 |
2017-10-09 |
|
v0.0.7 |
2017-08-25 |
|
v0.0.6 |
2017-08-18 |
|
v0.0.5 |
2017-06-19 |
|
v0.0.4 | 2017-06-19 | - Catch docstring linting failures, report as RST903 . |
v0.0.3 |
2017-06-16 |
|
v0.0.2 |
2017-06-16 |
|
v0.0.1 | 2017-06-16 | - Initial public release. |
This plugin is on GitHub at https://github.com/peterjc/flake8-rst-docstrings
To make a new release once tested locally and on TravisCI:
$ git tag vX.Y.Z
$ python setup.py sdist --formats=gztar
$ twine upload dist/flake8-rst-docstrings-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
$ git push origin master --tags
The PyPI upload should trigger an automated pull request updating the flake8-rst-docstrings conda-forge recipe.
- Have the "INFO" level
RST1##
codes available but ignored by default? - Can we call
docutils
rather than bundle a copy of their parser code? - Create a full test suite and use this for continuous integration.
- Test with raw mode docstrings and slash-escaped characters.