[python] How do I disable "missing docstring" warnings at a file-level in Pylint?

Pylint throws errors that some of the files are missing docstrings. I try and add docstrings to each class, method and function, but it seems that Pylint also checks that files should have a docstring at the beginning of them. Can I disable this somehow?

I would like to be notified of a docstring is missing inside a class, function or method, but it shouldn't be mandatory for a file to have a docstring.

(Is there a term for the legal jargon often found at the beginning of a proprietary source file? Any examples? I don't know whether it is a okay to post such a trivial question separately.)

This question is related to python pylint docstring

The answer is


I came looking for an answer because, as cerin said, in Django projects it is cumbersome and redundant to add module docstrings to every one of the files that Django automatically generates when creating a new application.

So, as a workaround for the fact that Pylint doesn't let you specify a difference in docstring types, you can do this:

pylint */*.py --msg-template='{path}: {C}:{line:3d},{column:2d}: {msg}' | grep docstring | grep -v module

You have to update the msg-template, so that when you grep you will still know the file name. This returns all the other missing-docstring types excluding modules.

Then you can fix all of those errors, and afterwards just run:

pylint */*.py --disable=missing-docstring

In my case, with Pylint 2.6.0, the missing docstring messages wouldn't disappear, even after explicitly disabling missing-module-docstring, missing-class-docstring and missing-function-docstring in my .pylintrc file. Finally, the following configuration worked for me:

[MESSAGES CONTROL]

disable=missing-docstring,empty-docstring

Apparently, Pylint 2.6.0 still validates docstrings unless both checks are disabled.


Go to file "settings.json" and disable the Python pydocstyle:

"python.linting.pydocstyleEnabled": false

  1. Ctrl + Shift + P

  2. Then type and click on > preferences:configure language specific settings

  3. and then type "python" after that. Paste the code

     {
         "python.linting.pylintArgs": [
             "--load-plugins=pylint_django", "--errors-only"
         ],
     }
    

Edit file "C:\Users\Your User\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\settings.json" and add these python.linting.pylintArgs lines at the end as shown below:

{
    "team.showWelcomeMessage": false,
    "python.dataScience.sendSelectionToInteractiveWindow": true,
    "git.enableSmartCommit": true,
    "powershell.codeFormatting.useCorrectCasing": true,
    "files.autoSave": "onWindowChange",
    "python.linting.pylintArgs": [
        "--load-plugins=pylint_django",
        "--errors-only"
    ],
}

Just put the following lines at the beginning of any file you want to disable these warnings for.

# pylint: disable=missing-module-docstring
# pylint: disable=missing-class-docstring
# pylint: disable=missing-function-docstring

I found this here.

You can add "--errors-only" flag for Pylint to disable warnings.

To do this, go to settings. Edit the following line:

"python.linting.pylintArgs": []

As

"python.linting.pylintArgs": ["--errors-only"]

And you are good to go!


I think the fix is relative easy without disabling this feature.

def kos_root():
    """Return the pathname of the KOS root directory."""
    global _kos_root
    if _kos_root: return _kos_root

All you need to do is add the triple double quotes string in every function.


No. Pylint doesn't currently let you discriminate between doc-string warnings.

However, you can use Flake8 for all Python code checking along with the doc-string extension to ignore this warning.

Install the doc-string extension with pip (internally, it uses pydocstyle).

pip install flake8_docstrings

You can then just use the --ignore D100 switch. For example, flake8 file.py --ignore D100


With Pylint 2.4 and above you can differentiate between the various missing-docstring by using the three following sub-messages:

  • C0114 (missing-module-docstring)
  • C0115 (missing-class-docstring)
  • C0116 (missing-function-docstring)

So the following .pylintrc file should work:

[MASTER]
disable=
    C0114, # missing-module-docstring