All patches and comments are welcome. Please squash your changes to logical
commits before using git-format-patch and git-send-email to
patches@git.madduck.net.
If you'd read over the Git project's submission guidelines and adhered to them,
I'd be especially grateful.
1 ![Black Logo](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/psf/black/master/docs/_static/logo2-readme.png)
3 <h2 align="center">The Uncompromising Code Formatter</h2>
6 <a href="https://travis-ci.com/psf/black"><img alt="Build Status" src="https://travis-ci.com/psf/black.svg?branch=master"></a>
7 <a href="https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/?badge=stable"><img alt="Documentation Status" src="https://readthedocs.org/projects/black/badge/?version=stable"></a>
8 <a href="https://coveralls.io/github/psf/black?branch=master"><img alt="Coverage Status" src="https://coveralls.io/repos/github/psf/black/badge.svg?branch=master"></a>
9 <a href="https://github.com/psf/black/blob/master/LICENSE"><img alt="License: MIT" src="https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/_static/license.svg"></a>
10 <a href="https://pypi.org/project/black/"><img alt="PyPI" src="https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/_static/pypi.svg"></a>
11 <a href="https://pepy.tech/project/black"><img alt="Downloads" src="https://pepy.tech/badge/black"></a>
12 <a href="https://github.com/psf/black"><img alt="Code style: black" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg"></a>
15 > “Any color you like.”
17 _Black_ is the uncompromising Python code formatter. By using it, you agree to cede
18 control over minutiae of hand-formatting. In return, _Black_ gives you speed,
19 determinism, and freedom from `pycodestyle` nagging about formatting. You will save time
20 and mental energy for more important matters.
22 Blackened code looks the same regardless of the project you're reading. Formatting
23 becomes transparent after a while and you can focus on the content instead.
25 _Black_ makes code review faster by producing the smallest diffs possible.
27 Try it out now using the [Black Playground](https://black.now.sh). Watch the
28 [PyCon 2019 talk](https://youtu.be/esZLCuWs_2Y) to learn more.
32 _Contents:_ **[Installation and usage](#installation-and-usage)** |
33 **[Code style](#the-black-code-style)** | **[pyproject.toml](#pyprojecttoml)** |
34 **[Editor integration](#editor-integration)** | **[blackd](#blackd)** |
35 **[Version control integration](#version-control-integration)** |
36 **[Ignoring unmodified files](#ignoring-unmodified-files)** | **[Used by](#used-by)** |
37 **[Testimonials](#testimonials)** | **[Show your style](#show-your-style)** |
38 **[Contributing](#contributing-to-black)** | **[Change Log](#change-log)** |
39 **[Authors](#authors)**
43 ## Installation and usage
47 _Black_ can be installed by running `pip install black`. It requires Python 3.6.0+ to
48 run but you can reformat Python 2 code with it, too.
52 To get started right away with sensible defaults:
55 black {source_file_or_directory}
58 ### Command line options
60 _Black_ doesn't provide many options. You can list them by running `black --help`:
63 black [OPTIONS] [SRC]...
66 -c, --code TEXT Format the code passed in as a string.
67 -l, --line-length INTEGER How many characters per line to allow.
69 -t, --target-version [py27|py33|py34|py35|py36|py37|py38]
70 Python versions that should be supported by
71 Black's output. [default: per-file auto-
73 --py36 Allow using Python 3.6-only syntax on all
74 input files. This will put trailing commas
75 in function signatures and calls also after
76 *args and **kwargs. Deprecated; use
77 --target-version instead. [default: per-file
79 --pyi Format all input files like typing stubs
80 regardless of file extension (useful when
81 piping source on standard input).
82 -S, --skip-string-normalization
83 Don't normalize string quotes or prefixes.
84 --check Don't write the files back, just return the
85 status. Return code 0 means nothing would
86 change. Return code 1 means some files
87 would be reformatted. Return code 123 means
88 there was an internal error.
89 --diff Don't write the files back, just output a
90 diff for each file on stdout.
91 --fast / --safe If --fast given, skip temporary sanity
92 checks. [default: --safe]
93 --include TEXT A regular expression that matches files and
94 directories that should be included on
95 recursive searches. An empty value means
96 all files are included regardless of the
97 name. Use forward slashes for directories
98 on all platforms (Windows, too). Exclusions
99 are calculated first, inclusions later.
101 --exclude TEXT A regular expression that matches files and
102 directories that should be excluded on
103 recursive searches. An empty value means no
104 paths are excluded. Use forward slashes for
105 directories on all platforms (Windows, too).
106 Exclusions are calculated first, inclusions
107 later. [default: /(\.eggs|\.git|\.hg|\.mypy
108 _cache|\.nox|\.tox|\.venv|_build|buck-
110 -q, --quiet Don't emit non-error messages to stderr.
111 Errors are still emitted, silence those with
113 -v, --verbose Also emit messages to stderr about files
114 that were not changed or were ignored due to
116 --version Show the version and exit.
117 --config PATH Read configuration from PATH.
118 -h, --help Show this message and exit.
121 _Black_ is a well-behaved Unix-style command-line tool:
123 - it does nothing if no sources are passed to it;
124 - it will read from standard input and write to standard output if `-` is used as the
126 - it only outputs messages to users on standard error;
127 - exits with code 0 unless an internal error occurred (or `--check` was used).
129 ### NOTE: This is a beta product
131 _Black_ is already [successfully used](#used-by) by many projects, small and big. It
132 also sports a decent test suite. However, it is still very new. Things will probably be
133 wonky for a while. This is made explicit by the "Beta" trove classifier, as well as by
134 the "b" in the version number. What this means for you is that **until the formatter
135 becomes stable, you should expect some formatting to change in the future**. That being
136 said, no drastic stylistic changes are planned, mostly responses to bug reports.
138 Also, as a temporary safety measure, _Black_ will check that the reformatted code still
139 produces a valid AST that is equivalent to the original. This slows it down. If you're
140 feeling confident, use `--fast`.
142 ## The _Black_ code style
144 _Black_ reformats entire files in place. It is not configurable. It doesn't take
145 previous formatting into account. It doesn't reformat blocks that start with
146 `# fmt: off` and end with `# fmt: on`. `# fmt: on/off` have to be on the same level of
147 indentation. It also recognizes [YAPF](https://github.com/google/yapf)'s block comments
148 to the same effect, as a courtesy for straddling code.
150 ### How _Black_ wraps lines
152 _Black_ ignores previous formatting and applies uniform horizontal and vertical
153 whitespace to your code. The rules for horizontal whitespace can be summarized as: do
154 whatever makes `pycodestyle` happy. The coding style used by _Black_ can be viewed as a
155 strict subset of PEP 8.
157 As for vertical whitespace, _Black_ tries to render one full expression or simple
158 statement per line. If this fits the allotted line length, great.
173 If not, _Black_ will look at the contents of the first outer matching brackets and put
174 that in a separate indented line.
179 ImportantClass.important_method(exc, limit, lookup_lines, capture_locals, extra_argument)
183 ImportantClass.important_method(
184 exc, limit, lookup_lines, capture_locals, extra_argument
188 If that still doesn't fit the bill, it will decompose the internal expression further
189 using the same rule, indenting matching brackets every time. If the contents of the
190 matching brackets pair are comma-separated (like an argument list, or a dict literal,
191 and so on) then _Black_ will first try to keep them on the same line with the matching
192 brackets. If that doesn't work, it will put all of them in separate lines.
197 def very_important_function(template: str, *variables, file: os.PathLike, engine: str, header: bool = True, debug: bool = False):
198 """Applies `variables` to the `template` and writes to `file`."""
199 with open(file, 'w') as f:
204 def very_important_function(
212 """Applies `variables` to the `template` and writes to `file`."""
213 with open(file, "w") as f:
217 You might have noticed that closing brackets are always dedented and that a trailing
218 comma is always added. Such formatting produces smaller diffs; when you add or remove an
219 element, it's always just one line. Also, having the closing bracket dedented provides a
220 clear delimiter between two distinct sections of the code that otherwise share the same
221 indentation level (like the arguments list and the docstring in the example above).
223 If a data structure literal (tuple, list, set, dict) or a line of "from" imports cannot
224 fit in the allotted length, it's always split into one element per line. This minimizes
225 diffs as well as enables readers of code to find which commit introduced a particular
226 entry. This also makes _Black_ compatible with [isort](https://pypi.org/p/isort/) with
227 the following configuration.
230 <summary>A compatible `.isort.cfg`</summary>
235 include_trailing_comma=True
241 The equivalent command line is:
244 $ isort --multi-line=3 --trailing-comma --force-grid-wrap=0 --use-parentheses --line-width=88 [ file.py ]
251 You probably noticed the peculiar default line length. _Black_ defaults to 88 characters
252 per line, which happens to be 10% over 80. This number was found to produce
253 significantly shorter files than sticking with 80 (the most popular), or even 79 (used
254 by the standard library). In general,
255 [90-ish seems like the wise choice](https://youtu.be/wf-BqAjZb8M?t=260).
257 If you're paid by the line of code you write, you can pass `--line-length` with a lower
258 number. _Black_ will try to respect that. However, sometimes it won't be able to without
259 breaking other rules. In those rare cases, auto-formatted code will exceed your allotted
262 You can also increase it, but remember that people with sight disabilities find it
263 harder to work with line lengths exceeding 100 characters. It also adversely affects
264 side-by-side diff review on typical screen resolutions. Long lines also make it harder
265 to present code neatly in documentation or talk slides.
267 If you're using Flake8, you can bump `max-line-length` to 88 and forget about it.
268 Alternatively, use [Bugbear](https://github.com/PyCQA/flake8-bugbear)'s B950 warning
269 instead of E501 and keep the max line length at 80 which you are probably already using.
270 You'd do it like this:
276 select = C,E,F,W,B,B950
277 ignore = E501,W503,E203
280 You'll find _Black_'s own .flake8 config file is configured like this. If you're curious
281 about the reasoning behind B950,
282 [Bugbear's documentation](https://github.com/PyCQA/flake8-bugbear#opinionated-warnings)
283 explains it. The tl;dr is "it's like highway speed limits, we won't bother you if you
284 overdo it by a few km/h".
288 _Black_ avoids spurious vertical whitespace. This is in the spirit of PEP 8 which says
289 that in-function vertical whitespace should only be used sparingly.
291 _Black_ will allow single empty lines inside functions, and single and double empty
292 lines on module level left by the original editors, except when they're within
293 parenthesized expressions. Since such expressions are always reformatted to fit minimal
294 space, this whitespace is lost.
296 It will also insert proper spacing before and after function definitions. It's one line
297 before and after inner functions and two lines before and after module-level functions
298 and classes. _Black_ will not put empty lines between function/class definitions and
299 standalone comments that immediately precede the given function/class.
301 _Black_ will enforce single empty lines between a class-level docstring and the first
302 following field or method. This conforms to
303 [PEP 257](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/#multi-line-docstrings).
305 _Black_ won't insert empty lines after function docstrings unless that empty line is
306 required due to an inner function starting immediately after.
310 _Black_ will add trailing commas to expressions that are split by comma where each
311 element is on its own line. This includes function signatures.
313 Unnecessary trailing commas are removed if an expression fits in one line. This makes it
314 1% more likely that your line won't exceed the allotted line length limit. Moreover, in
315 this scenario, if you added another argument to your call, you'd probably fit it in the
316 same line anyway. That doesn't make diffs any larger.
318 One exception to removing trailing commas is tuple expressions with just one element. In
319 this case _Black_ won't touch the single trailing comma as this would unexpectedly
320 change the underlying data type. Note that this is also the case when commas are used
321 while indexing. This is a tuple in disguise: `numpy_array[3, ]`.
323 One exception to adding trailing commas is function signatures containing `*`, `*args`,
324 or `**kwargs`. In this case a trailing comma is only safe to use on Python 3.6. _Black_
325 will detect if your file is already 3.6+ only and use trailing commas in this situation.
326 If you wonder how it knows, it looks for f-strings and existing use of trailing commas
327 in function signatures that have stars in them. In other words, if you'd like a trailing
328 comma in this situation and _Black_ didn't recognize it was safe to do so, put it there
329 manually and _Black_ will keep it.
333 _Black_ prefers double quotes (`"` and `"""`) over single quotes (`'` and `'''`). It
334 will replace the latter with the former as long as it does not result in more backslash
337 _Black_ also standardizes string prefixes, making them always lowercase. On top of that,
338 if your code is already Python 3.6+ only or it's using the `unicode_literals` future
339 import, _Black_ will remove `u` from the string prefix as it is meaningless in those
342 The main reason to standardize on a single form of quotes is aesthetics. Having one kind
343 of quotes everywhere reduces reader distraction. It will also enable a future version of
344 _Black_ to merge consecutive string literals that ended up on the same line (see
345 [#26](https://github.com/psf/black/issues/26) for details).
347 Why settle on double quotes? They anticipate apostrophes in English text. They match the
348 docstring standard described in
349 [PEP 257](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/#what-is-a-docstring). An empty
350 string in double quotes (`""`) is impossible to confuse with a one double-quote
351 regardless of fonts and syntax highlighting used. On top of this, double quotes for
352 strings are consistent with C which Python interacts a lot with.
354 On certain keyboard layouts like US English, typing single quotes is a bit easier than
355 double quotes. The latter requires use of the Shift key. My recommendation here is to
356 keep using whatever is faster to type and let _Black_ handle the transformation.
358 If you are adopting _Black_ in a large project with pre-existing string conventions
360 ["single quotes for data, double quotes for human-readable strings"](https://stackoverflow.com/a/56190)),
361 you can pass `--skip-string-normalization` on the command line. This is meant as an
362 adoption helper, avoid using this for new projects.
366 _Black_ standardizes most numeric literals to use lowercase letters for the syntactic
367 parts and uppercase letters for the digits themselves: `0xAB` instead of `0XAB` and
368 `1e10` instead of `1E10`. Python 2 long literals are styled as `2L` instead of `2l` to
369 avoid confusion between `l` and `1`.
371 ### Line breaks & binary operators
373 _Black_ will break a line before a binary operator when splitting a block of code over
374 multiple lines. This is so that _Black_ is compliant with the recent changes in the
375 [PEP 8](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#should-a-line-break-before-or-after-a-binary-operator)
376 style guide, which emphasizes that this approach improves readability.
378 This behaviour may raise `W503 line break before binary operator` warnings in style
379 guide enforcement tools like Flake8. Since `W503` is not PEP 8 compliant, you should
380 tell Flake8 to ignore these warnings.
385 [recommends](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#whitespace-in-expressions-and-statements)
386 to treat `:` in slices as a binary operator with the lowest priority, and to leave an
387 equal amount of space on either side, except if a parameter is omitted (e.g.
388 `ham[1 + 1 :]`). It also states that for extended slices, both `:` operators have to
389 have the same amount of spacing, except if a parameter is omitted (`ham[1 + 1 ::]`).
390 _Black_ enforces these rules consistently.
392 This behaviour may raise `E203 whitespace before ':'` warnings in style guide
393 enforcement tools like Flake8. Since `E203` is not PEP 8 compliant, you should tell
394 Flake8 to ignore these warnings.
398 Some parentheses are optional in the Python grammar. Any expression can be wrapped in a
399 pair of parentheses to form an atom. There are a few interesting cases:
403 - `for (...) in (...):`
404 - `assert (...), (...)`
405 - `from X import (...)`
408 - `target: type = (...)`
409 - `some, *un, packing = (...)`
410 - `augmented += (...)`
412 In those cases, parentheses are removed when the entire statement fits in one line, or
413 if the inner expression doesn't have any delimiters to further split on. If there is
414 only a single delimiter and the expression starts or ends with a bracket, the
415 parenthesis can also be successfully omitted since the existing bracket pair will
416 organize the expression neatly anyway. Otherwise, the parentheses are added.
418 Please note that _Black_ does not add or remove any additional nested parentheses that
419 you might want to have for clarity or further code organization. For example those
420 parentheses are not going to be removed:
423 return not (this or that)
424 decision = (maybe.this() and values > 0) or (maybe.that() and values < 0)
429 Some popular APIs, like ORMs, use call chaining. This API style is known as a
430 [fluent interface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluent_interface). _Black_ formats
431 those by treating dots that follow a call or an indexing operation like a very low
432 priority delimiter. It's easier to show the behavior than to explain it. Look at the
436 def example(session):
438 session.query(models.Customer.id)
440 models.Customer.account_id == account_id,
441 models.Customer.email == email_address,
443 .order_by(models.Customer.id.asc())
448 ### Typing stub files
450 PEP 484 describes the syntax for type hints in Python. One of the use cases for typing
451 is providing type annotations for modules which cannot contain them directly (they might
452 be written in C, or they might be third-party, or their implementation may be overly
456 [stub files with the `.pyi` file extension](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0484/#stub-files)
457 can be used to describe typing information for an external module. Those stub files omit
458 the implementation of classes and functions they describe, instead they only contain the
459 structure of the file (listing globals, functions, and classes with their members). The
460 recommended code style for those files is more terse than PEP 8:
462 - prefer `...` on the same line as the class/function signature;
463 - avoid vertical whitespace between consecutive module-level functions, names, or
464 methods and fields within a single class;
465 - use a single blank line between top-level class definitions, or none if the classes
468 _Black_ enforces the above rules. There are additional guidelines for formatting `.pyi`
469 file that are not enforced yet but might be in a future version of the formatter:
471 - all function bodies should be empty (contain `...` instead of the body);
472 - do not use docstrings;
473 - prefer `...` over `pass`;
474 - for arguments with a default, use `...` instead of the actual default;
475 - avoid using string literals in type annotations, stub files support forward references
476 natively (like Python 3.7 code with `from __future__ import annotations`);
477 - use variable annotations instead of type comments, even for stubs that target older
479 - for arguments that default to `None`, use `Optional[]` explicitly;
480 - use `float` instead of `Union[int, float]`.
484 _Black_ is able to read project-specific default values for its command line options
485 from a `pyproject.toml` file. This is especially useful for specifying custom
486 `--include` and `--exclude` patterns for your project.
488 **Pro-tip**: If you're asking yourself "Do I need to configure anything?" the answer is
489 "No". _Black_ is all about sensible defaults.
491 ### What on Earth is a `pyproject.toml` file?
493 [PEP 518](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0518/) defines `pyproject.toml` as a
494 configuration file to store build system requirements for Python projects. With the help
495 of tools like [Poetry](https://poetry.eustace.io/) or
496 [Flit](https://flit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) it can fully replace the need for
497 `setup.py` and `setup.cfg` files.
499 ### Where _Black_ looks for the file
501 By default _Black_ looks for `pyproject.toml` starting from the common base directory of
502 all files and directories passed on the command line. If it's not there, it looks in
503 parent directories. It stops looking when it finds the file, or a `.git` directory, or a
504 `.hg` directory, or the root of the file system, whichever comes first.
506 If you're formatting standard input, _Black_ will look for configuration starting from
507 the current working directory.
509 You can also explicitly specify the path to a particular file that you want with
510 `--config`. In this situation _Black_ will not look for any other file.
512 If you're running with `--verbose`, you will see a blue message if a file was found and
515 Please note `blackd` will not use `pyproject.toml` configuration.
517 ### Configuration format
519 As the file extension suggests, `pyproject.toml` is a
520 [TOML](https://github.com/toml-lang/toml) file. It contains separate sections for
521 different tools. _Black_ is using the `[tool.black]` section. The option keys are the
522 same as long names of options on the command line.
524 Note that you have to use single-quoted strings in TOML for regular expressions. It's
525 the equivalent of r-strings in Python. Multiline strings are treated as verbose regular
526 expressions by Black. Use `[ ]` to denote a significant space character.
529 <summary>Example `pyproject.toml`</summary>
534 target-version = ['py37']
540 \.eggs # exclude a few common directories in the
541 | \.git # root of the project
551 | foo.py # also separately exclude a file named foo.py in
552 # the root of the project
561 Command-line options have defaults that you can see in `--help`. A `pyproject.toml` can
562 override those defaults. Finally, options provided by the user on the command line
565 _Black_ will only ever use one `pyproject.toml` file during an entire run. It doesn't
566 look for multiple files, and doesn't compose configuration from different levels of the
569 ## Editor integration
573 Use [proofit404/blacken](https://github.com/proofit404/blacken) or
574 [Elpy](https://github.com/jorgenschaefer/elpy).
576 ### PyCharm/IntelliJ IDEA
584 2. Locate your `black` installation folder.
586 On macOS / Linux / BSD:
590 /usr/local/bin/black # possible location
597 %LocalAppData%\Programs\Python\Python36-32\Scripts\black.exe # possible location
600 3. Open External tools in PyCharm/IntelliJ IDEA
604 `PyCharm -> Preferences -> Tools -> External Tools`
606 On Windows / Linux / BSD:
608 `File -> Settings -> Tools -> External Tools`
610 4. Click the + icon to add a new external tool with the following values:
613 - Description: Black is the uncompromising Python code formatter.
614 - Program: <install_location_from_step_2>
615 - Arguments: `"$FilePath$"`
617 5. Format the currently opened file by selecting `Tools -> External Tools -> black`.
619 - Alternatively, you can set a keyboard shortcut by navigating to
620 `Preferences or Settings -> Keymap -> External Tools -> External Tools - Black`.
622 6. Optionally, run _Black_ on every file save:
624 1. Make sure you have the
625 [File Watcher](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7177-file-watchers) plugin
627 2. Go to `Preferences or Settings -> Tools -> File Watchers` and click `+` to add a
631 - Scope: Project Files
632 - Program: <install_location_from_step_2>
633 - Arguments: `$FilePath$`
634 - Output paths to refresh: `$FilePath$`
635 - Working directory: `$ProjectFileDir$`
637 - Uncheck "Auto-save edited files to trigger the watcher"
641 Wing supports black via the OS Commands tool, as explained in the Wing documentation on
642 [pep8 formatting](https://wingware.com/doc/edit/pep8). The detailed procedure is:
650 2. Make sure it runs from the command line, e.g.
656 3. In Wing IDE, activate the **OS Commands** panel and define the command **black** to
657 execute black on the currently selected file:
659 - Use the Tools -> OS Commands menu selection
660 - click on **+** in **OS Commands** -> New: Command line..
662 - Command Line: black %s
663 - I/O Encoding: Use Default
665 - [x] Raise OS Commands when executed
666 - [x] Auto-save files before execution
669 4. Select a file in the editor and press **F1** , or whatever key binding you selected
670 in step 3, to reformat the file.
674 Commands and shortcuts:
676 - `:Black` to format the entire file (ranges not supported);
677 - `:BlackUpgrade` to upgrade _Black_ inside the virtualenv;
678 - `:BlackVersion` to get the current version of _Black_ inside the virtualenv.
682 - `g:black_fast` (defaults to `0`)
683 - `g:black_linelength` (defaults to `88`)
684 - `g:black_skip_string_normalization` (defaults to `0`)
685 - `g:black_virtualenv` (defaults to `~/.vim/black` or `~/.local/share/nvim/black`)
687 To install with [vim-plug](https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug):
693 or with [Vundle](https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim):
699 or you can copy the plugin from
700 [plugin/black.vim](https://github.com/psf/black/tree/master/plugin/black.vim).
703 mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/python/start/black/plugin
704 curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/psf/black/master/plugin/black.vim -o ~/.vim/pack/python/start/black/plugin/black.vim
707 Let me know if this requires any changes to work with Vim 8's builtin `packadd`, or
710 This plugin **requires Vim 7.0+ built with Python 3.6+ support**. It needs Python 3.6 to
711 be able to run _Black_ inside the Vim process which is much faster than calling an
714 On first run, the plugin creates its own virtualenv using the right Python version and
715 automatically installs _Black_. You can upgrade it later by calling `:BlackUpgrade` and
718 If you need to do anything special to make your virtualenv work and install _Black_ (for
719 example you want to run a version from master), create a virtualenv manually and point
720 `g:black_virtualenv` to it. The plugin will use it.
722 To run _Black_ on save, add the following line to `.vimrc` or `init.vim`:
725 autocmd BufWritePre *.py execute ':Black'
728 To run _Black_ on a key press (e.g. F9 below), add this:
731 nnoremap <F9> :Black<CR>
734 **How to get Vim with Python 3.6?** On Ubuntu 17.10 Vim comes with Python 3.6 by
735 default. On macOS with Homebrew run: `brew install vim --with-python3`. When building
736 Vim from source, use: `./configure --enable-python3interp=yes`. There's many guides
737 online how to do this.
739 ### Visual Studio Code
742 [Python extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.python)
743 ([instructions](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/editing#_formatting)).
747 Use [sublack plugin](https://github.com/jgirardet/sublack).
749 ### Jupyter Notebook Magic
751 Use [blackcellmagic](https://github.com/csurfer/blackcellmagic).
753 ### Python Language Server
755 If your editor supports the [Language Server Protocol](https://langserver.org/) (Atom,
756 Sublime Text, Visual Studio Code and many more), you can use the
757 [Python Language Server](https://github.com/palantir/python-language-server) with the
758 [pyls-black](https://github.com/rupert/pyls-black) plugin.
762 Use [python-black](https://atom.io/packages/python-black).
766 Add the following hook to your kakrc, then run black with `:format`.
769 hook global WinSetOption filetype=python %{
770 set-option window formatcmd 'black -q -'
776 Other editors will require external contributions.
778 Patches welcome! ✨ 🍰 ✨
780 Any tool that can pipe code through _Black_ using its stdio mode (just
781 [use `-` as the file name](https://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/special-chars.html#DASHREF2)).
782 The formatted code will be returned on stdout (unless `--check` was passed). _Black_
783 will still emit messages on stderr but that shouldn't affect your use case.
785 This can be used for example with PyCharm's or IntelliJ's
786 [File Watchers](https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/file-watchers.html).
790 `blackd` is a small HTTP server that exposes _Black_'s functionality over a simple
791 protocol. The main benefit of using it is to avoid paying the cost of starting up a new
792 _Black_ process every time you want to blacken a file.
796 `blackd` is not packaged alongside _Black_ by default because it has additional
797 dependencies. You will need to do `pip install black[d]` to install it.
799 You can start the server on the default port, binding only to the local interface by
800 running `blackd`. You will see a single line mentioning the server's version, and the
801 host and port it's listening on. `blackd` will then print an access log similar to most
802 web servers on standard output, merged with any exception traces caused by invalid
805 `blackd` provides even less options than _Black_. You can see them by running
809 Usage: blackd [OPTIONS]
812 --bind-host TEXT Address to bind the server to.
813 --bind-port INTEGER Port to listen on
814 --version Show the version and exit.
815 -h, --help Show this message and exit.
818 There is no official blackd client tool (yet!). You can test that blackd is working
822 blackd --bind-port 9090 & # or let blackd choose a port
823 curl -s -XPOST "localhost:9090" -d "print('valid')"
828 `blackd` only accepts `POST` requests at the `/` path. The body of the request should
829 contain the python source code to be formatted, encoded according to the `charset` field
830 in the `Content-Type` request header. If no `charset` is specified, `blackd` assumes
833 There are a few HTTP headers that control how the source is formatted. These correspond
834 to command line flags for _Black_. There is one exception to this: `X-Protocol-Version`
835 which if present, should have the value `1`, otherwise the request is rejected with
836 `HTTP 501` (Not Implemented).
838 The headers controlling how code is formatted are:
840 - `X-Line-Length`: corresponds to the `--line-length` command line flag.
841 - `X-Skip-String-Normalization`: corresponds to the `--skip-string-normalization`
842 command line flag. If present and its value is not the empty string, no string
843 normalization will be performed.
844 - `X-Fast-Or-Safe`: if set to `fast`, `blackd` will act as _Black_ does when passed the
845 `--fast` command line flag.
846 - `X-Python-Variant`: if set to `pyi`, `blackd` will act as _Black_ does when passed the
847 `--pyi` command line flag. Otherwise, its value must correspond to a Python version or
848 a set of comma-separated Python versions, optionally prefixed with `py`. For example,
849 to request code that is compatible with Python 3.5 and 3.6, set the header to
852 If any of these headers are set to invalid values, `blackd` returns a `HTTP 400` error
853 response, mentioning the name of the problematic header in the message body.
855 Apart from the above, `blackd` can produce the following response codes:
857 - `HTTP 204`: If the input is already well-formatted. The response body is empty.
858 - `HTTP 200`: If formatting was needed on the input. The response body contains the
859 blackened Python code, and the `Content-Type` header is set accordingly.
860 - `HTTP 400`: If the input contains a syntax error. Details of the error are returned in
862 - `HTTP 500`: If there was any kind of error while trying to format the input. The
863 response body contains a textual representation of the error.
865 The response headers include a `X-Black-Version` header containing the version of
868 ## Version control integration
870 Use [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/). Once you
871 [have it installed](https://pre-commit.com/#install), add this to the
872 `.pre-commit-config.yaml` in your repository:
876 - repo: https://github.com/psf/black
880 language_version: python3.6
883 Then run `pre-commit install` and you're ready to go.
885 Avoid using `args` in the hook. Instead, store necessary configuration in
886 `pyproject.toml` so that editors and command-line usage of Black all behave consistently
887 for your project. See _Black_'s own [pyproject.toml](/pyproject.toml) for an example.
889 If you're already using Python 3.7, switch the `language_version` accordingly. Finally,
890 `stable` is a tag that is pinned to the latest release on PyPI. If you'd rather run on
891 master, this is also an option.
893 ## Ignoring unmodified files
895 _Black_ remembers files it has already formatted, unless the `--diff` flag is used or
896 code is passed via standard input. This information is stored per-user. The exact
897 location of the file depends on the _Black_ version and the system on which _Black_ is
898 run. The file is non-portable. The standard location on common operating systems is:
901 `C:\\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\black\black\Cache\<version>\cache.<line-length>.<file-mode>.pickle`
903 `/Users/<username>/Library/Caches/black/<version>/cache.<line-length>.<file-mode>.pickle`
905 `/home/<username>/.cache/black/<version>/cache.<line-length>.<file-mode>.pickle`
907 `file-mode` is an int flag that determines whether the file was formatted as 3.6+ only,
908 as .pyi, and whether string normalization was omitted.
910 To override the location of these files on macOS or Linux, set the environment variable
911 `XDG_CACHE_HOME` to your preferred location. For example, if you want to put the cache
912 in the directory you're running _Black_ from, set `XDG_CACHE_HOME=.cache`. _Black_ will
913 then write the above files to `.cache/black/<version>/`.
917 The following notable open-source projects trust _Black_ with enforcing a consistent
918 code style: pytest, tox, Pyramid, Django Channels, Hypothesis, attrs, SQLAlchemy,
919 Poetry, PyPA applications (Warehouse, Pipenv, virtualenv), pandas, Pillow, every Datadog
922 Are we missing anyone? Let us know.
927 [writer](https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dusty+phillips):
929 > _Black_ is opinionated so you don't have to be.
931 **Hynek Schlawack**, [creator of `attrs`](https://www.attrs.org/), core developer of
934 > An auto-formatter that doesn't suck is all I want for Xmas!
936 **Carl Meyer**, [Django](https://www.djangoproject.com/) core developer:
938 > At least the name is good.
940 **Kenneth Reitz**, creator of [`requests`](http://python-requests.org/) and
941 [`pipenv`](https://docs.pipenv.org/):
943 > This vastly improves the formatting of our code. Thanks a ton!
947 Use the badge in your project's README.md:
950 [![Code style: black](https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg)](https://github.com/psf/black)
953 Using the badge in README.rst:
956 .. image:: https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg
957 :target: https://github.com/psf/black
961 [![Code style: black](https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg)](https://github.com/psf/black)
967 ## Contributing to _Black_
969 In terms of inspiration, _Black_ is about as configurable as _gofmt_. This is
972 Bug reports and fixes are always welcome! However, before you suggest a new feature or
973 configuration knob, ask yourself why you want it. If it enables better integration with
974 some workflow, fixes an inconsistency, speeds things up, and so on - go for it! On the
975 other hand, if your answer is "because I don't like a particular formatting" then you're
976 not ready to embrace _Black_ yet. Such changes are unlikely to get accepted. You can
977 still try but prepare to be disappointed.
979 More details can be found in [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md).
985 - added `black -c` as a way to format code passed from the command line (#761)
987 - --safe now works with Python 2 code (#840)
989 - fixed grammar selection for Python 2-specific code (#765)
991 - fixed feature detection for trailing commas in function definitions and call sites
994 - _Black_ can now format async generators (#593)
996 - _Black_ no longer crashes on Windows machines with more than 61 cores (#838)
998 - _Black_ no longer crashes on standalone comments prepended with a backslash (#767)
1000 - _Black_ no longer crashes on `from` ... `import` blocks with comments (#829)
1002 - removed unnecessary parentheses around `yield` expressions (#834)
1004 - added parentheses around long tuples in unpacking assignments (#832)
1006 - fixed bug that led _Black_ format some code with a line length target of 1 (#762)
1008 - _Black_ no longer introduces quotes in f-string subexpressions on string boundaries
1011 - if _Black_ puts parenthesis around a single expression, it moves comments to the
1012 wrapped expression instead of after the brackets (#872)
1014 - _Black_ is now able to format Python code that uses assignment expressions (`:=` as
1015 described in PEP-572) (#935)
1017 - _Black_ is now able to format Python code that uses positional-only arguments (`/` as
1018 described in PEP-570) (#946)
1020 - `blackd` now returns the version of _Black_ in the response headers (#1013)
1024 - new option `--target-version` to control which Python versions _Black_-formatted code
1025 should target (#618)
1027 - deprecated `--py36` (use `--target-version=py36` instead) (#724)
1029 - _Black_ no longer normalizes numeric literals to include `_` separators (#696)
1031 - long `del` statements are now split into multiple lines (#698)
1033 - type comments are no longer mangled in function signatures
1035 - improved performance of formatting deeply nested data structures (#509)
1037 - _Black_ now properly formats multiple files in parallel on Windows (#632)
1039 - _Black_ now creates cache files atomically which allows it to be used in parallel
1040 pipelines (like `xargs -P8`) (#673)
1042 - _Black_ now correctly indents comments in files that were previously formatted with
1045 - `blackd` now supports CORS (#622)
1049 - numeric literals are now formatted by _Black_ (#452, #461, #464, #469):
1051 - numeric literals are normalized to include `_` separators on Python 3.6+ code
1053 - added `--skip-numeric-underscore-normalization` to disable the above behavior and
1054 leave numeric underscores as they were in the input
1056 - code with `_` in numeric literals is recognized as Python 3.6+
1058 - most letters in numeric literals are lowercased (e.g., in `1e10`, `0x01`)
1060 - hexadecimal digits are always uppercased (e.g. `0xBADC0DE`)
1062 - added `blackd`, see [its documentation](#blackd) for more info (#349)
1064 - adjacent string literals are now correctly split into multiple lines (#463)
1066 - trailing comma is now added to single imports that don't fit on a line (#250)
1068 - cache is now populated when `--check` is successful for a file which speeds up
1069 consecutive checks of properly formatted unmodified files (#448)
1071 - whitespace at the beginning of the file is now removed (#399)
1073 - fixed mangling [pweave](http://mpastell.com/pweave/) and
1074 [Spyder IDE](https://pythonhosted.org/spyder/) special comments (#532)
1076 - fixed unstable formatting when unpacking big tuples (#267)
1078 - fixed parsing of `__future__` imports with renames (#389)
1080 - fixed scope of `# fmt: off` when directly preceding `yield` and other nodes (#385)
1082 - fixed formatting of lambda expressions with default arguments (#468)
1084 - fixed `async for` statements: _Black_ no longer breaks them into separate lines (#372)
1086 - note: the Vim plugin stopped registering `,=` as a default chord as it turned out to
1087 be a bad idea (#415)
1091 - hotfix: don't freeze when multiple comments directly precede `# fmt: off` (#371)
1095 - typing stub files (`.pyi`) now have blank lines added after constants (#340)
1097 - `# fmt: off` and `# fmt: on` are now much more dependable:
1099 - they now work also within bracket pairs (#329)
1101 - they now correctly work across function/class boundaries (#335)
1103 - they now work when an indentation block starts with empty lines or misaligned
1106 - made Click not fail on invalid environments; note that Click is right but the
1107 likelihood we'll need to access non-ASCII file paths when dealing with Python source
1110 - fixed improper formatting of f-strings with quotes inside interpolated expressions
1113 - fixed unnecessary slowdown when long list literals where found in a file
1115 - fixed unnecessary slowdown on AST nodes with very many siblings
1117 - fixed cannibalizing backslashes during string normalization
1119 - fixed a crash due to symbolic links pointing outside of the project directory (#338)
1123 - added `--config` (#65)
1125 - added `-h` equivalent to `--help` (#316)
1127 - fixed improper unmodified file caching when `-S` was used
1129 - fixed extra space in string unpacking (#305)
1131 - fixed formatting of empty triple quoted strings (#313)
1133 - fixed unnecessary slowdown in comment placement calculation on lines without comments
1137 - hotfix: don't output human-facing information on stdout (#299)
1139 - hotfix: don't output cake emoji on non-zero return code (#300)
1143 - added `--include` and `--exclude` (#270)
1145 - added `--skip-string-normalization` (#118)
1147 - added `--verbose` (#283)
1149 - the header output in `--diff` now actually conforms to the unified diff spec
1151 - fixed long trivial assignments being wrapped in unnecessary parentheses (#273)
1153 - fixed unnecessary parentheses when a line contained multiline strings (#232)
1155 - fixed stdin handling not working correctly if an old version of Click was used (#276)
1157 - _Black_ now preserves line endings when formatting a file in place (#258)
1161 - added `--pyi` (#249)
1163 - added `--py36` (#249)
1165 - Python grammar pickle caches are stored with the formatting caches, making _Black_
1166 work in environments where site-packages is not user-writable (#192)
1168 - _Black_ now enforces a PEP 257 empty line after a class-level docstring (and/or
1169 fields) and the first method
1171 - fixed invalid code produced when standalone comments were present in a trailer that
1172 was omitted from line splitting on a large expression (#237)
1174 - fixed optional parentheses being removed within `# fmt: off` sections (#224)
1176 - fixed invalid code produced when stars in very long imports were incorrectly wrapped
1177 in optional parentheses (#234)
1179 - fixed unstable formatting when inline comments were moved around in a trailer that was
1180 omitted from line splitting on a large expression (#238)
1182 - fixed extra empty line between a class declaration and the first method if no class
1183 docstring or fields are present (#219)
1185 - fixed extra empty line between a function signature and an inner function or inner
1190 - call chains are now formatted according to the
1191 [fluent interfaces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluent_interface) style (#67)
1193 - data structure literals (tuples, lists, dictionaries, and sets) are now also always
1194 exploded like imports when they don't fit in a single line (#152)
1196 - slices are now formatted according to PEP 8 (#178)
1198 - parentheses are now also managed automatically on the right-hand side of assignments
1199 and return statements (#140)
1201 - math operators now use their respective priorities for delimiting multiline
1204 - optional parentheses are now omitted on expressions that start or end with a bracket
1205 and only contain a single operator (#177)
1207 - empty parentheses in a class definition are now removed (#145, #180)
1209 - string prefixes are now standardized to lowercase and `u` is removed on Python 3.6+
1210 only code and Python 2.7+ code with the `unicode_literals` future import (#188, #198,
1213 - typing stub files (`.pyi`) are now formatted in a style that is consistent with PEP
1216 - progress when reformatting many files is now reported incrementally
1218 - fixed trailers (content with brackets) being unnecessarily exploded into their own
1219 lines after a dedented closing bracket (#119)
1221 - fixed an invalid trailing comma sometimes left in imports (#185)
1223 - fixed non-deterministic formatting when multiple pairs of removable parentheses were
1226 - fixed multiline strings being unnecessarily wrapped in optional parentheses in long
1229 - fixed not splitting long from-imports with only a single name
1231 - fixed Python 3.6+ file discovery by also looking at function calls with unpacking.
1232 This fixed non-deterministic formatting if trailing commas where used both in function
1233 signatures with stars and function calls with stars but the former would be
1234 reformatted to a single line.
1236 - fixed crash on dealing with optional parentheses (#193)
1238 - fixed "is", "is not", "in", and "not in" not considered operators for splitting
1241 - fixed crash when dead symlinks where encountered
1245 - don't populate the cache on `--check` (#175)
1249 - added a "cache"; files already reformatted that haven't changed on disk won't be
1250 reformatted again (#109)
1252 - `--check` and `--diff` are no longer mutually exclusive (#149)
1254 - generalized star expression handling, including double stars; this fixes
1255 multiplication making expressions "unsafe" for trailing commas (#132)
1257 - _Black_ no longer enforces putting empty lines behind control flow statements (#90)
1259 - _Black_ now splits imports like "Mode 3 + trailing comma" of isort (#127)
1261 - fixed comment indentation when a standalone comment closes a block (#16, #32)
1263 - fixed standalone comments receiving extra empty lines if immediately preceding a
1264 class, def, or decorator (#56, #154)
1266 - fixed `--diff` not showing entire path (#130)
1268 - fixed parsing of complex expressions after star and double stars in function calls
1271 - fixed invalid splitting on comma in lambda arguments (#133)
1273 - fixed missing splits of ternary expressions (#141)
1277 - fixed parsing of unaligned standalone comments (#99, #112)
1279 - fixed placement of dictionary unpacking inside dictionary literals (#111)
1281 - Vim plugin now works on Windows, too
1283 - fixed unstable formatting when encountering unnecessarily escaped quotes in a string
1288 - added `--quiet` (#78)
1290 - added automatic parentheses management (#4)
1292 - added [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com) integration (#103, #104)
1294 - fixed reporting on `--check` with multiple files (#101, #102)
1296 - fixed removing backslash escapes from raw strings (#100, #105)
1300 - added `--diff` (#87)
1302 - add line breaks before all delimiters, except in cases like commas, to better comply
1305 - standardize string literals to use double quotes (almost) everywhere (#75)
1307 - fixed handling of standalone comments within nested bracketed expressions; _Black_
1308 will no longer produce super long lines or put all standalone comments at the end of
1309 the expression (#22)
1311 - fixed 18.3a4 regression: don't crash and burn on empty lines with trailing whitespace
1314 - fixed 18.3a4 regression: `# yapf: disable` usage as trailing comment would cause
1315 _Black_ to not emit the rest of the file (#95)
1317 - when CTRL+C is pressed while formatting many files, _Black_ no longer freaks out with
1318 a flurry of asyncio-related exceptions
1320 - only allow up to two empty lines on module level and only single empty lines within
1325 - `# fmt: off` and `# fmt: on` are implemented (#5)
1327 - automatic detection of deprecated Python 2 forms of print statements and exec
1328 statements in the formatted file (#49)
1330 - use proper spaces for complex expressions in default values of typed function
1333 - only return exit code 1 when --check is used (#50)
1335 - don't remove single trailing commas from square bracket indexing (#59)
1337 - don't omit whitespace if the previous factor leaf wasn't a math operator (#55)
1339 - omit extra space in kwarg unpacking if it's the first argument (#46)
1341 - omit extra space in
1342 [Sphinx auto-attribute comments](http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/ext/autodoc.html#directive-autoattribute)
1347 - don't remove single empty lines outside of bracketed expressions (#19)
1349 - added ability to pipe formatting from stdin to stdin (#25)
1351 - restored ability to format code with legacy usage of `async` as a name (#20, #42)
1353 - even better handling of numpy-style array indexing (#33, again)
1357 - changed positioning of binary operators to occur at beginning of lines instead of at
1359 [a recent change to PEP 8](https://github.com/python/peps/commit/c59c4376ad233a62ca4b3a6060c81368bd21e85b)
1362 - ignore empty bracket pairs while splitting. This avoids very weirdly looking
1363 formattings (#34, #35)
1365 - remove a trailing comma if there is a single argument to a call
1367 - if top level functions were separated by a comment, don't put four empty lines after
1370 - fixed unstable formatting of newlines with imports
1372 - fixed unintentional folding of post scriptum standalone comments into last statement
1373 if it was a simple statement (#18, #28)
1375 - fixed missing space in numpy-style array indexing (#33)
1377 - fixed spurious space after star-based unary expressions (#31)
1383 - only put trailing commas in function signatures and calls if it's safe to do so. If
1384 the file is Python 3.6+ it's always safe, otherwise only safe if there are no `*args`
1385 or `**kwargs` used in the signature or call. (#8)
1387 - fixed invalid spacing of dots in relative imports (#6, #13)
1389 - fixed invalid splitting after comma on unpacked variables in for-loops (#23)
1391 - fixed spurious space in parenthesized set expressions (#7)
1393 - fixed spurious space after opening parentheses and in default arguments (#14, #17)
1395 - fixed spurious space after unary operators when the operand was a complex expression
1400 - first published version, Happy 🍰 Day 2018!
1404 - date-versioned (see: https://calver.org/)
1408 Glued together by [Łukasz Langa](mailto:lukasz@langa.pl).
1410 Maintained with [Carol Willing](mailto:carolcode@willingconsulting.com),
1411 [Carl Meyer](mailto:carl@oddbird.net),
1412 [Jelle Zijlstra](mailto:jelle.zijlstra@gmail.com),
1413 [Mika Naylor](mailto:mail@autophagy.io), and
1414 [Zsolt Dollenstein](mailto:zsol.zsol@gmail.com).
1416 Multiple contributions by:
1418 - [Anthony Sottile](mailto:asottile@umich.edu)
1419 - [Artem Malyshev](mailto:proofit404@gmail.com)
1420 - [Benjamin Woodruff](mailto:github@benjam.info)
1421 - [Christian Heimes](mailto:christian@python.org)
1422 - [Daniel M. Capella](mailto:polycitizen@gmail.com)
1423 - [Eli Treuherz](mailto:eli@treuherz.com)
1426 - [Ivan Katanić](mailto:ivan.katanic@gmail.com)
1427 - [Jason Fried](mailto:me@jasonfried.info)
1428 - [Jonas Obrist](mailto:ojiidotch@gmail.com)
1429 - [Luka Sterbic](mailto:luka.sterbic@gmail.com)
1430 - [Miguel Gaiowski](mailto:miggaiowski@gmail.com)
1431 - [Miroslav Shubernetskiy](mailto:miroslav@miki725.com)
1432 - [Neraste](mailto:neraste.herr10@gmail.com)
1433 - [Osaetin Daniel](mailto:osaetindaniel@gmail.com)
1434 - [Peter Bengtsson](mailto:mail@peterbe.com)
1435 - [Stavros Korokithakis](mailto:hi@stavros.io)
1436 - [Sunil Kapil](mailto:snlkapil@gmail.com)
1437 - [Utsav Shah](mailto:ukshah2@illinois.edu)
1438 - [Vishwas B Sharma](mailto:sharma.vishwas88@gmail.com)
1439 - [Chuck Wooters](mailto:chuck.wooters@microsoft.com)