Python – How to reference a documented Python function parameter using Sphinx markup

docstringpythonpython-sphinx

I'd like to reference a previously-documented function parameter elsewhere in a Python docstring. Consider the following (admittedly completely artificial) example:

def foo(bar):
    """Perform foo action
    :param bar: The bar parameter
    """

    def nested():
        """Some nested function that depends on enclosing scope's bar parameter.
        I'd like to reference function foo's bar parameter here
        with a link, is that possible?"""
        return bar * bar

    # ...
    return nested()

Is there a simple way to embed a parameter reference using Sphinx markup, or will this happen automagically?

(I'm a complete Sphinx newbie. I've been scanning the Sphinx docs and haven't found an answer to this question, or an example demonstrating proper markup.)

Best Answer

There is no simple way to get a direct reference to a parameter of a function with sphinx and I don't know an extension for this problem.

The documentation of the python domain explains which objects can be cross referenced.

A possible way to give the user a reference to parameter bar of function foo would be

See parameter ``bar`` in :func:`foo`.

Maybe a direct reference would be possible by writing an extension.

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Python – How to copy a file in Python

shutil has many methods you can use. One of which is:

from shutil import copyfile
copyfile(src, dst)

# 2nd option
copy(src, dst)  # dst can be a folder; use copy2() to preserve timestamp

Copy the contents of the file named src to a file named dst. Both src and dst need to be the entire filename of the files, including path.
The destination location must be writable; otherwise, an IOError exception will be raised.
If dst already exists, it will be replaced.
Special files such as character or block devices and pipes cannot be copied with this function.
With copy, src and dst are path names given as strs.

Another shutil method to look at is shutil.copy2(). It's similar but preserves more metadata (e.g. time stamps).

If you use os.path operations, use copy rather than copyfile. copyfile will only accept strings.

Python – How to safely create a nested directory in Python

On Python ≥ 3.5, use pathlib.Path.mkdir:

from pathlib import Path
Path("/my/directory").mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

For older versions of Python, I see two answers with good qualities, each with a small flaw, so I will give my take on it:

Try os.path.exists, and consider os.makedirs for the creation.

import os
if not os.path.exists(directory):
    os.makedirs(directory)

As noted in comments and elsewhere, there's a race condition – if the directory is created between the os.path.exists and the os.makedirs calls, the os.makedirs will fail with an OSError. Unfortunately, blanket-catching OSError and continuing is not foolproof, as it will ignore a failure to create the directory due to other factors, such as insufficient permissions, full disk, etc.

One option would be to trap the OSError and examine the embedded error code (see Is there a cross-platform way of getting information from Python’s OSError):

import os, errno

try:
    os.makedirs(directory)
except OSError as e:
    if e.errno != errno.EEXIST:
        raise

Alternatively, there could be a second os.path.exists, but suppose another created the directory after the first check, then removed it before the second one – we could still be fooled.

Depending on the application, the danger of concurrent operations may be more or less than the danger posed by other factors such as file permissions. The developer would have to know more about the particular application being developed and its expected environment before choosing an implementation.

Modern versions of Python improve this code quite a bit, both by exposing FileExistsError (in 3.3+)...

try:
    os.makedirs("path/to/directory")
except FileExistsError:
    # directory already exists
    pass

...and by allowing a keyword argument to os.makedirs called exist_ok (in 3.2+).

os.makedirs("path/to/directory", exist_ok=True)  # succeeds even if directory exists.

Best Answer

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