.. highlight:: rest :mod:`sphinx.ext.autodoc` -- Include documentation from docstrings ================================================================== .. module:: sphinx.ext.autodoc :synopsis: Include documentation from docstrings. .. index:: pair: automatic; documentation single: docstring This extension can import the modules you are documenting, and pull in documentation from docstrings in a semi-automatic way. .. note:: For Sphinx (actually, the Python interpreter that executes Sphinx) to find your module, it must be importable. That means that the module or the package must be in one of the directories on :data:`sys.path` -- adapt your :data:`sys.path` in the configuration file accordingly. .. warning:: :mod:`~sphinx.ext.autodoc` **imports** the modules to be documented. If any modules have side effects on import, these will be executed by ``autodoc`` when ``sphinx-build`` is run. If you document scripts (as opposed to library modules), make sure their main routine is protected by a ``if __name__ == '__main__'`` condition. For this to work, the docstrings must of course be written in correct reStructuredText. You can then use all of the usual Sphinx markup in the docstrings, and it will end up correctly in the documentation. Together with hand-written documentation, this technique eases the pain of having to maintain two locations for documentation, while at the same time avoiding auto-generated-looking pure API documentation. If you prefer `NumPy`_ or `Google`_ style docstrings over reStructuredText, you can also enable the :mod:`napoleon ` extension. :mod:`napoleon ` is a preprocessor that converts your docstrings to correct reStructuredText before :mod:`autodoc` processes them. .. _Google: https://google.github.io/styleguide/pyguide.html#38-comments-and-docstrings .. _NumPy: https://numpydoc.readthedocs.io/en/latest/format.html#docstring-standard Directives ---------- :mod:`autodoc` provides several directives that are versions of the usual :rst:dir:`py:module`, :rst:dir:`py:class` and so forth. On parsing time, they import the corresponding module and extract the docstring of the given objects, inserting them into the page source under a suitable :rst:dir:`py:module`, :rst:dir:`py:class` etc. directive. .. note:: Just as :rst:dir:`py:class` respects the current :rst:dir:`py:module`, :rst:dir:`autoclass` will also do so. Likewise, :rst:dir:`automethod` will respect the current :rst:dir:`py:class`. .. rst:directive:: automodule autoclass autoexception Document a module, class or exception. All three directives will by default only insert the docstring of the object itself:: .. autoclass:: Noodle will produce source like this:: .. class:: Noodle Noodle's docstring. The "auto" directives can also contain content of their own, it will be inserted into the resulting non-auto directive source after the docstring (but before any automatic member documentation). Therefore, you can also mix automatic and non-automatic member documentation, like so:: .. autoclass:: Noodle :members: eat, slurp .. method:: boil(time=10) Boil the noodle *time* minutes. .. rubric:: Options .. rst:directive:option:: members :type: no value or comma separated list If set, autodoc will generate document for the members of the target module, class or exception. For example:: .. automodule:: noodle :members: will document all module members (recursively), and :: .. autoclass:: Noodle :members: will document all class member methods and properties. By default, autodoc will not generate document for the members that are private, not having docstrings, inherited from super class, or special members. For modules, ``__all__`` will be respected when looking for members unless you give the ``ignore-module-all`` flag option. Without ``ignore-module-all``, the order of the members will also be the order in ``__all__``. You can also give an explicit list of members; only these will then be documented:: .. autoclass:: Noodle :members: eat, slurp .. rst:directive:option:: undoc-members :type: no value If set, autodoc will also generate document for the members not having docstrings:: .. automodule:: noodle :members: :undoc-members: .. rst:directive:option:: private-members :type: no value or comma separated list If set, autodoc will also generate document for the private members (that is, those named like ``_private`` or ``__private``):: .. automodule:: noodle :members: :private-members: It can also take an explicit list of member names to be documented as arguments:: .. automodule:: noodle :members: :private-members: _spicy, _garlickly .. versionadded:: 1.1 .. versionchanged:: 3.2 The option can now take arguments. .. rst:directive:option:: special-members :type: no value or comma separated list If set, autodoc will also generate document for the special members (that is, those named like ``__special__``):: .. autoclass:: my.Class :members: :special-members: It can also take an explicit list of member names to be documented as arguments:: .. autoclass:: my.Class :members: :special-members: __init__, __name__ .. versionadded:: 1.1 .. versionchanged:: 1.2 The option can now take arguments **Options and advanced usage** * If you want to make the ``members`` option (or other options described below) the default, see :confval:`autodoc_default_options`. .. tip:: You can use a negated form, :samp:`'no-{flag}'`, as an option of autodoc directive, to disable it temporarily. For example:: .. automodule:: foo :no-undoc-members: .. tip:: You can use autodoc directive options to temporarily override or extend default options which takes list as an input. For example:: .. autoclass:: Noodle :members: eat :private-members: +_spicy, _garlickly .. versionchanged:: 3.5 The default options can be overridden or extended temporarily. * autodoc considers a member private if its docstring contains ``:meta private:`` in its :ref:`info-field-lists`. For example: .. code-block:: python def my_function(my_arg, my_other_arg): """blah blah blah :meta private: """ .. versionadded:: 3.0 * autodoc considers a member public if its docstring contains ``:meta public:`` in its :ref:`info-field-lists`, even if it starts with an underscore. For example: .. code-block:: python def _my_function(my_arg, my_other_arg): """blah blah blah :meta public: """ .. versionadded:: 3.1 * autodoc considers a variable member does not have any default value if its docstring contains ``:meta hide-value:`` in its :ref:`info-field-lists`. Example: .. code-block:: python var1 = None #: :meta hide-value: .. versionadded:: 3.5 * For classes and exceptions, members inherited from base classes will be left out when documenting all members, unless you give the ``inherited-members`` option, in addition to ``members``:: .. autoclass:: Noodle :members: :inherited-members: This can be combined with ``undoc-members`` to document *all* available members of the class or module. It can take an ancestor class not to document inherited members from it. By default, members of ``object`` class are not documented. To show them all, give ``None`` to the option. For example; If your class ``Foo`` is derived from ``list`` class and you don't want to document ``list.__len__()``, you should specify a option ``:inherited-members: list`` to avoid special members of list class. Another example; If your class Foo has ``__str__`` special method and autodoc directive has both ``inherited-members`` and ``special-members``, ``__str__`` will be documented as in the past, but other special method that are not implemented in your class ``Foo``. Since v5.0, it can take a comma separated list of ancestor classes. It allows to suppress inherited members of several classes on the module at once by specifying the option to :rst:dir:`automodule` directive. Note: this will lead to markup errors if the inherited members come from a module whose docstrings are not reST formatted. .. versionadded:: 0.3 .. versionchanged:: 3.0 It takes an ancestor class name as an argument. .. versionchanged:: 5.0 It takes a comma separated list of ancestor class names. * It's possible to override the signature for explicitly documented callable objects (functions, methods, classes) with the regular syntax that will override the signature gained from introspection:: .. autoclass:: Noodle(type) .. automethod:: eat(persona) This is useful if the signature from the method is hidden by a decorator. .. versionadded:: 0.4 * The :rst:dir:`automodule`, :rst:dir:`autoclass` and :rst:dir:`autoexception` directives also support a flag option called ``show-inheritance``. When given, a list of base classes will be inserted just below the class signature (when used with :rst:dir:`automodule`, this will be inserted for every class that is documented in the module). .. versionadded:: 0.4 * All autodoc directives support the ``no-index`` flag option that has the same effect as for standard :rst:dir:`py:function` etc. directives: no index entries are generated for the documented object (and all autodocumented members). .. versionadded:: 0.4 * :rst:dir:`automodule` also recognizes the ``synopsis``, ``platform`` and ``deprecated`` options that the standard :rst:dir:`py:module` directive supports. .. versionadded:: 0.5 * :rst:dir:`automodule` and :rst:dir:`autoclass` also has an ``member-order`` option that can be used to override the global value of :confval:`autodoc_member_order` for one directive. .. versionadded:: 0.6 * The directives supporting member documentation also have a ``exclude-members`` option that can be used to exclude single member names from documentation, if all members are to be documented. .. versionadded:: 0.6 * In an :rst:dir:`automodule` directive with the ``members`` option set, only module members whose ``__module__`` attribute is equal to the module name as given to ``automodule`` will be documented. This is to prevent documentation of imported classes or functions. Set the ``imported-members`` option if you want to prevent this behavior and document all available members. Note that attributes from imported modules will not be documented, because attribute documentation is discovered by parsing the source file of the current module. .. versionadded:: 1.2 * Add a list of modules in the :confval:`autodoc_mock_imports` to prevent import errors to halt the building process when some external dependencies are not importable at build time. .. versionadded:: 1.3 * As a hint to autodoc extension, you can put a ``::`` separator in between module name and object name to let autodoc know the correct module name if it is ambiguous. :: .. autoclass:: module.name::Noodle * :rst:dir:`autoclass` also recognizes the ``class-doc-from`` option that can be used to override the global value of :confval:`autoclass_content`. .. versionadded:: 4.1 .. rst:directive:: autofunction autodecorator autodata automethod autoattribute autoproperty These work exactly like :rst:dir:`autoclass` etc., but do not offer the options used for automatic member documentation. :rst:dir:`autodata` and :rst:dir:`autoattribute` support the ``annotation`` option. The option controls how the value of variable is shown. If specified without arguments, only the name of the variable will be printed, and its value is not shown:: .. autodata:: CD_DRIVE :annotation: If the option specified with arguments, it is printed after the name as a value of the variable:: .. autodata:: CD_DRIVE :annotation: = your CD device name By default, without ``annotation`` option, Sphinx tries to obtain the value of the variable and print it after the name. The ``no-value`` option can be used instead of a blank ``annotation`` to show the type hint but not the value:: .. autodata:: CD_DRIVE :no-value: If both the ``annotation`` and ``no-value`` options are used, ``no-value`` has no effect. For module data members and class attributes, documentation can either be put into a comment with special formatting (using a ``#:`` to start the comment instead of just ``#``), or in a docstring *after* the definition. Comments need to be either on a line of their own *before* the definition, or immediately after the assignment *on the same line*. The latter form is restricted to one line only. This means that in the following class definition, all attributes can be autodocumented:: class Foo: """Docstring for class Foo.""" #: Doc comment for class attribute Foo.bar. #: It can have multiple lines. bar = 1 flox = 1.5 #: Doc comment for Foo.flox. One line only. baz = 2 """Docstring for class attribute Foo.baz.""" def __init__(self): #: Doc comment for instance attribute qux. self.qux = 3 self.spam = 4 """Docstring for instance attribute spam.""" .. versionchanged:: 0.6 :rst:dir:`autodata` and :rst:dir:`autoattribute` can now extract docstrings. .. versionchanged:: 1.1 Comment docs are now allowed on the same line after an assignment. .. versionchanged:: 1.2 :rst:dir:`autodata` and :rst:dir:`autoattribute` have an ``annotation`` option. .. versionchanged:: 2.0 :rst:dir:`autodecorator` added. .. versionchanged:: 2.1 :rst:dir:`autoproperty` added. .. versionchanged:: 3.4 :rst:dir:`autodata` and :rst:dir:`autoattribute` now have a ``no-value`` option. .. note:: If you document decorated functions or methods, keep in mind that autodoc retrieves its docstrings by importing the module and inspecting the ``__doc__`` attribute of the given function or method. That means that if a decorator replaces the decorated function with another, it must copy the original ``__doc__`` to the new function. Configuration ------------- There are also config values that you can set: .. confval:: autoclass_content This value selects what content will be inserted into the main body of an :rst:dir:`autoclass` directive. The possible values are: ``"class"`` Only the class' docstring is inserted. This is the default. You can still document ``__init__`` as a separate method using :rst:dir:`automethod` or the ``members`` option to :rst:dir:`autoclass`. ``"both"`` Both the class' and the ``__init__`` method's docstring are concatenated and inserted. ``"init"`` Only the ``__init__`` method's docstring is inserted. .. versionadded:: 0.3 If the class has no ``__init__`` method or if the ``__init__`` method's docstring is empty, but the class has a ``__new__`` method's docstring, it is used instead. .. versionadded:: 1.4 .. confval:: autodoc_class_signature This value selects how the signature will be displayed for the class defined by :rst:dir:`autoclass` directive. The possible values are: ``"mixed"`` Display the signature with the class name. ``"separated"`` Display the signature as a method. The default is ``"mixed"``. .. versionadded:: 4.1 .. confval:: autodoc_member_order This value selects if automatically documented members are sorted alphabetical (value ``'alphabetical'``), by member type (value ``'groupwise'``) or by source order (value ``'bysource'``). The default is alphabetical. Note that for source order, the module must be a Python module with the source code available. .. versionadded:: 0.6 .. versionchanged:: 1.0 Support for ``'bysource'``. .. confval:: autodoc_default_flags This value is a list of autodoc directive flags that should be automatically applied to all autodoc directives. The supported flags are ``'members'``, ``'undoc-members'``, ``'private-members'``, ``'special-members'``, ``'inherited-members'``, ``'show-inheritance'``, ``'ignore-module-all'`` and ``'exclude-members'``. .. versionadded:: 1.0 .. deprecated:: 1.8 Integrated into :confval:`autodoc_default_options`. .. confval:: autodoc_default_options The default options for autodoc directives. They are applied to all autodoc directives automatically. It must be a dictionary which maps option names to the values. For example:: autodoc_default_options = { 'members': 'var1, var2', 'member-order': 'bysource', 'special-members': '__init__', 'undoc-members': True, 'exclude-members': '__weakref__' } Setting ``None`` or ``True`` to the value is equivalent to giving only the option name to the directives. The supported options are ``'members'``, ``'member-order'``, ``'undoc-members'``, ``'private-members'``, ``'special-members'``, ``'inherited-members'``, ``'show-inheritance'``, ``'ignore-module-all'``, ``'imported-members'``, ``'exclude-members'``, ``'class-doc-from'`` and ``'no-value'``. .. versionadded:: 1.8 .. versionchanged:: 2.0 Accepts ``True`` as a value. .. versionchanged:: 2.1 Added ``'imported-members'``. .. versionchanged:: 4.1 Added ``'class-doc-from'``. .. versionchanged:: 4.5 Added ``'no-value'``. .. confval:: autodoc_docstring_signature Functions imported from C modules cannot be introspected, and therefore the signature for such functions cannot be automatically determined. However, it is an often-used convention to put the signature into the first line of the function's docstring. If this boolean value is set to ``True`` (which is the default), autodoc will look at the first line of the docstring for functions and methods, and if it looks like a signature, use the line as the signature and remove it from the docstring content. autodoc will continue to look for multiple signature lines, stopping at the first line that does not look like a signature. This is useful for declaring overloaded function signatures. .. versionadded:: 1.1 .. versionchanged:: 3.1 Support overloaded signatures .. versionchanged:: 4.0 Overloaded signatures do not need to be separated by a backslash .. confval:: autodoc_mock_imports This value contains a list of modules to be mocked up. This is useful when some external dependencies are not met at build time and break the building process. You may only specify the root package of the dependencies themselves and omit the sub-modules: .. code-block:: python autodoc_mock_imports = ["django"] Will mock all imports under the ``django`` package. .. versionadded:: 1.3 .. versionchanged:: 1.6 This config value only requires to declare the top-level modules that should be mocked. .. confval:: autodoc_typehints This value controls how to represent typehints. The setting takes the following values: * ``'signature'`` -- Show typehints in the signature (default) * ``'description'`` -- Show typehints as content of the function or method The typehints of overloaded functions or methods will still be represented in the signature. * ``'none'`` -- Do not show typehints * ``'both'`` -- Show typehints in the signature and as content of the function or method Overloaded functions or methods will not have typehints included in the description because it is impossible to accurately represent all possible overloads as a list of parameters. .. versionadded:: 2.1 .. versionadded:: 3.0 New option ``'description'`` is added. .. versionadded:: 4.1 New option ``'both'`` is added. .. confval:: autodoc_typehints_description_target This value controls whether the types of undocumented parameters and return values are documented when ``autodoc_typehints`` is set to ``description``. The default value is ``"all"``, meaning that types are documented for all parameters and return values, whether they are documented or not. When set to ``"documented"``, types will only be documented for a parameter or a return value that is already documented by the docstring. With ``"documented_params"``, parameter types will only be annotated if the parameter is documented in the docstring. The return type is always annotated (except if it is ``None``). .. versionadded:: 4.0 .. versionadded:: 5.0 New option ``'documented_params'`` is added. .. confval:: autodoc_type_aliases A dictionary for users defined `type aliases`__ that maps a type name to the full-qualified object name. It is used to keep type aliases not evaluated in the document. Defaults to empty (``{}``). The type aliases are only available if your program enables :pep:`Postponed Evaluation of Annotations (PEP 563) <563>` feature via ``from __future__ import annotations``. For example, there is code using a type alias:: from __future__ import annotations AliasType = Union[List[Dict[Tuple[int, str], Set[int]]], Tuple[str, List[str]]] def f() -> AliasType: ... If ``autodoc_type_aliases`` is not set, autodoc will generate internal mark-up from this code as following:: .. py:function:: f() -> Union[List[Dict[Tuple[int, str], Set[int]]], Tuple[str, List[str]]] ... If you set ``autodoc_type_aliases`` as ``{'AliasType': 'your.module.AliasType'}``, it generates the following document internally:: .. py:function:: f() -> your.module.AliasType: ... .. __: https://mypy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/kinds_of_types.html#type-aliases .. versionadded:: 3.3 .. confval:: autodoc_typehints_format This value controls the format of typehints. The setting takes the following values: * ``'fully-qualified'`` -- Show the module name and its name of typehints * ``'short'`` -- Suppress the leading module names of the typehints (ex. ``io.StringIO`` -> ``StringIO``) (default) .. versionadded:: 4.4 .. versionchanged:: 5.0 The default setting was changed to ``'short'`` .. confval:: autodoc_preserve_defaults If True, the default argument values of functions will be not evaluated on generating document. It preserves them as is in the source code. .. versionadded:: 4.0 Added as an experimental feature. This will be integrated into autodoc core in the future. .. confval:: autodoc_warningiserror This value controls the behavior of :option:`sphinx-build -W` during importing modules. If ``False`` is given, autodoc forcedly suppresses the error if the imported module emits warnings. By default, ``True``. .. confval:: autodoc_inherit_docstrings This value controls the docstrings inheritance. If set to True the docstring for classes or methods, if not explicitly set, is inherited from parents. The default is ``True``. .. versionadded:: 1.7 .. confval:: suppress_warnings :no-index: :mod:`autodoc` supports to suppress warning messages via :confval:`suppress_warnings`. It allows following warnings types in addition: * autodoc * autodoc.import_object Docstring preprocessing ----------------------- autodoc provides the following additional events: .. event:: autodoc-process-docstring (app, what, name, obj, options, lines) .. versionadded:: 0.4 Emitted when autodoc has read and processed a docstring. *lines* is a list of strings -- the lines of the processed docstring -- that the event handler can modify **in place** to change what Sphinx puts into the output. :param app: the Sphinx application object :param what: the type of the object which the docstring belongs to (one of ``"module"``, ``"class"``, ``"exception"``, ``"function"``, ``"method"``, ``"attribute"``) :param name: the fully qualified name of the object :param obj: the object itself :param options: the options given to the directive: an object with attributes ``inherited_members``, ``undoc_members``, ``show_inheritance`` and ``no-index`` that are true if the flag option of same name was given to the auto directive :param lines: the lines of the docstring, see above .. event:: autodoc-before-process-signature (app, obj, bound_method) .. versionadded:: 2.4 Emitted before autodoc formats a signature for an object. The event handler can modify an object to change its signature. :param app: the Sphinx application object :param obj: the object itself :param bound_method: a boolean indicates an object is bound method or not .. event:: autodoc-process-signature (app, what, name, obj, options, signature, return_annotation) .. versionadded:: 0.5 Emitted when autodoc has formatted a signature for an object. The event handler can return a new tuple ``(signature, return_annotation)`` to change what Sphinx puts into the output. :param app: the Sphinx application object :param what: the type of the object which the docstring belongs to (one of ``"module"``, ``"class"``, ``"exception"``, ``"function"``, ``"method"``, ``"attribute"``) :param name: the fully qualified name of the object :param obj: the object itself :param options: the options given to the directive: an object with attributes ``inherited_members``, ``undoc_members``, ``show_inheritance`` and ``no-index`` that are true if the flag option of same name was given to the auto directive :param signature: function signature, as a string of the form ``"(parameter_1, parameter_2)"``, or ``None`` if introspection didn't succeed and signature wasn't specified in the directive. :param return_annotation: function return annotation as a string of the form ``" -> annotation"``, or ``None`` if there is no return annotation The :mod:`sphinx.ext.autodoc` module provides factory functions for commonly needed docstring processing in event :event:`autodoc-process-docstring`: .. autofunction:: cut_lines .. autofunction:: between .. event:: autodoc-process-bases (app, name, obj, options, bases) Emitted when autodoc has read and processed a class to determine the base-classes. *bases* is a list of classes that the event handler can modify **in place** to change what Sphinx puts into the output. It's emitted only if ``show-inheritance`` option given. :param app: the Sphinx application object :param name: the fully qualified name of the object :param obj: the object itself :param options: the options given to the class directive :param bases: the list of base classes signature. see above. .. versionadded:: 4.1 .. versionchanged:: 4.3 ``bases`` can contain a string as a base class name. It will be processed as reST mark-up'ed text. Skipping members ---------------- autodoc allows the user to define a custom method for determining whether a member should be included in the documentation by using the following event: .. event:: autodoc-skip-member (app, what, name, obj, skip, options) .. versionadded:: 0.5 Emitted when autodoc has to decide whether a member should be included in the documentation. The member is excluded if a handler returns ``True``. It is included if the handler returns ``False``. If more than one enabled extension handles the ``autodoc-skip-member`` event, autodoc will use the first non-``None`` value returned by a handler. Handlers should return ``None`` to fall back to the skipping behavior of autodoc and other enabled extensions. :param app: the Sphinx application object :param what: the type of the object which the docstring belongs to (one of ``"module"``, ``"class"``, ``"exception"``, ``"function"``, ``"method"``, ``"attribute"``) :param name: the fully qualified name of the object :param obj: the object itself :param skip: a boolean indicating if autodoc will skip this member if the user handler does not override the decision :param options: the options given to the directive: an object with attributes ``inherited_members``, ``undoc_members``, ``show_inheritance`` and ``no-index`` that are true if the flag option of same name was given to the auto directive