pydoclint

Names with leading underscores

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Table of Contents

• 1. Categories
• 2. Which options apply to which categories
• 3. Default values
• 4. Ignored names are not optional

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1. Categories

pydoclint puts every function, argument, and class attribute name into exactly one category:

Category	Examples
PUBLIC	value, value_
PRIVATE	_value, __value, _value__
UNDERSCORE_ONLY	_, __, ___
SPECIAL_DUNDER	__init__, __slots__, __tablename__

2. Which options apply to which categories

Option	Applies to
--skip-checking-private-functions	PRIVATE and UNDERSCORE_ONLY functions
--ignore-private-args	PRIVATE arguments
--ignore-underscore-only-args	UNDERSCORE_ONLY arguments
--ignore-special-dunder-args	SPECIAL_DUNDER arguments
--ignore-private-class-attributes	PRIVATE class attributes
--ignore-underscore-only-class-attributes	UNDERSCORE_ONLY class attributes
--ignore-special-dunder-class-attributes	SPECIAL_DUNDER class attributes

In particular:

• --skip-checking-private-functions skips private and underscore-only functions, together with everything defined inside them. Special dunder methods, such as __init__, are always checked.
• Arguments and class attributes each have three options that independently control private, underscore-only, and special dunder names.
• The leading * or ** of a star argument is removed before its name is classified, so *_ is underscore-only and **_kwargs is private.
• Public names are never ignored by these options.

3. Default values

The defaults follow one rule per context. Arguments are part of a function’s call signature, so only underscore-only placeholder arguments are ignored by default. The “Attributes” section describes a class’s public interface, so private, underscore-only, and special dunder class attributes are all ignored by default. Each option’s section in Configuration options explains its default in more detail.

4. Ignored names are not optional

An ignored argument or class attribute is excluded from comparison; it is not optional documentation. Documenting an ignored name produces an “extra name” violation, such as DOC102/DOC103 for arguments or DOC602/DOC603 for class attributes.

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