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://github.com/psf/black/actions"><img alt="Actions Status" src="https://github.com/psf/black/workflows/Test/badge.svg"></a>
8 <a href="https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/?badge=stable"><img alt="Documentation Status" src="https://readthedocs.org/projects/black/badge/?version=stable"></a>
9 <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>
10 <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>
11 <a href="https://pypi.org/project/black/"><img alt="PyPI" src="https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/black"></a>
12 <a href="https://pepy.tech/project/black"><img alt="Downloads" src="https://pepy.tech/badge/black"></a>
13 <a href="https://github.com/psf/black"><img alt="Code style: black" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg"></a>
16 > “Any color you like.”
18 _Black_ is the uncompromising Python code formatter. By using it, you agree to cede
19 control over minutiae of hand-formatting. In return, _Black_ gives you speed,
20 determinism, and freedom from `pycodestyle` nagging about formatting. You will save time
21 and mental energy for more important matters.
23 Blackened code looks the same regardless of the project you're reading. Formatting
24 becomes transparent after a while and you can focus on the content instead.
26 _Black_ makes code review faster by producing the smallest diffs possible.
28 Try it out now using the [Black Playground](https://black.now.sh). Watch the
29 [PyCon 2019 talk](https://youtu.be/esZLCuWs_2Y) to learn more.
33 _Contents:_ **[Installation and usage](#installation-and-usage)** |
34 **[Code style](#the-black-code-style)** | **[Pragmatism](#pragmatism)** |
35 **[pyproject.toml](#pyprojecttoml)** | **[Editor integration](#editor-integration)** |
36 **[blackd](#blackd)** | **[Version control integration](#version-control-integration)**
37 | **[Ignoring unmodified files](#ignoring-unmodified-files)** | **[Used by](#used-by)**
38 | **[Testimonials](#testimonials)** | **[Show your style](#show-your-style)** |
39 **[Contributing](#contributing-to-black)** | **[Change Log](#change-log)** |
40 **[Authors](#authors)**
44 ## Installation and usage
48 _Black_ can be installed by running `pip install black`. It requires Python 3.6.0+ to
49 run but you can reformat Python 2 code with it, too.
53 To get started right away with sensible defaults:
56 black {source_file_or_directory}
59 ### Command line options
61 _Black_ doesn't provide many options. You can list them by running `black --help`:
64 Usage: black [OPTIONS] [SRC]...
66 The uncompromising code formatter.
69 -c, --code TEXT Format the code passed in as a string.
70 -l, --line-length INTEGER How many characters per line to allow.
73 -t, --target-version [py27|py33|py34|py35|py36|py37|py38]
74 Python versions that should be supported by
75 Black's output. [default: per-file auto-
78 --pyi Format all input files like typing stubs
79 regardless of file extension (useful when
80 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.
90 --diff Don't write the files back, just output a
91 diff for each file on stdout.
93 --color / --no-color Show colored diff. Only applies when
96 --fast / --safe If --fast given, skip temporary sanity
97 checks. [default: --safe]
99 --include TEXT A regular expression that matches files and
100 directories that should be included on
101 recursive searches. An empty value means
102 all files are included regardless of the
103 name. Use forward slashes for directories
104 on all platforms (Windows, too). Exclusions
105 are calculated first, inclusions later.
108 --exclude TEXT A regular expression that matches files and
109 directories that should be excluded on
110 recursive searches. An empty value means no
111 paths are excluded. Use forward slashes for
112 directories on all platforms (Windows, too).
113 Exclusions are calculated first, inclusions
114 later. [default: /(\.eggs|\.git|\.hg|\.mypy
115 _cache|\.nox|\.tox|\.venv|\.svn|_build|buck-
118 --force-exclude TEXT Like --exclude, but files and directories
119 matching this regex will be excluded even
120 when they are passed explicitly as arguments
122 -q, --quiet Don't emit non-error messages to stderr.
123 Errors are still emitted; silence those with
126 -v, --verbose Also emit messages to stderr about files
127 that were not changed or were ignored due to
130 --version Show the version and exit.
131 --config FILE Read configuration from PATH.
132 -h, --help Show this message and exit.
135 _Black_ is a well-behaved Unix-style command-line tool:
137 - it does nothing if no sources are passed to it;
138 - it will read from standard input and write to standard output if `-` is used as the
140 - it only outputs messages to users on standard error;
141 - exits with code 0 unless an internal error occurred (or `--check` was used).
143 ### Using _Black_ with other tools
145 While _Black_ enforces formatting that conforms to PEP 8, other tools may raise warnings
146 about _Black_'s changes or will overwrite _Black_'s changes. A good example of this is
147 [isort](https://pypi.org/p/isort). Since _Black_ is barely configurable, these tools
148 should be configured to neither warn about nor overwrite _Black_'s changes.
150 Actual details on _Black_ compatible configurations for various tools can be found in
151 [compatible_configs](https://github.com/psf/black/blob/master/docs/compatible_configs.md).
153 ### Migrating your code style without ruining git blame
155 A long-standing argument against moving to automated code formatters like _Black_ is
156 that the migration will clutter up the output of `git blame`. This was a valid argument,
157 but since Git version 2.23, Git natively supports
158 [ignoring revisions in blame](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-blame#Documentation/git-blame.txt---ignore-revltrevgt)
159 with the `--ignore-rev` option. You can also pass a file listing the revisions to ignore
160 using the `--ignore-revs-file` option. The changes made by the revision will be ignored
161 when assigning blame. Lines modified by an ignored revision will be blamed on the
162 previous revision that modified those lines.
164 So when migrating your project's code style to _Black_, reformat everything and commit
165 the changes (preferably in one massive commit). Then put the full 40 characters commit
166 identifier(s) into a file.
169 # Migrate code style to Black
170 5b4ab991dede475d393e9d69ec388fd6bd949699
173 Afterwards, you can pass that file to `git blame` and see clean and meaningful blame
177 $ git blame important.py --ignore-revs-file .git-blame-ignore-revs
178 7a1ae265 (John Smith 2019-04-15 15:55:13 -0400 1) def very_important_function(text, file):
179 abdfd8b0 (Alice Doe 2019-09-23 11:39:32 -0400 2) text = text.lstrip()
180 7a1ae265 (John Smith 2019-04-15 15:55:13 -0400 3) with open(file, "r+") as f:
181 7a1ae265 (John Smith 2019-04-15 15:55:13 -0400 4) f.write(formatted)
184 You can even configure `git` to automatically ignore revisions listed in a file on every
188 $ git config blame.ignoreRevsFile .git-blame-ignore-revs
191 **The one caveat is that GitHub and GitLab do not yet support ignoring revisions using
192 their native UI of blame.** So blame information will be cluttered with a reformatting
193 commit on those platforms. (If you'd like this feature, there's an open issue for
194 [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/31423) and please let GitHub
197 ### NOTE: This is a beta product
199 _Black_ is already [successfully used](#used-by) by many projects, small and big. It
200 also sports a decent test suite. However, it is still very new. Things will probably be
201 wonky for a while. This is made explicit by the "Beta" trove classifier, as well as by
202 the "b" in the version number. What this means for you is that **until the formatter
203 becomes stable, you should expect some formatting to change in the future**. That being
204 said, no drastic stylistic changes are planned, mostly responses to bug reports.
206 Also, as a temporary safety measure, _Black_ will check that the reformatted code still
207 produces a valid AST that is equivalent to the original. This slows it down. If you're
208 feeling confident, use `--fast`.
210 ## The _Black_ code style
212 _Black_ reformats entire files in place. It is not configurable. It doesn't take
213 previous formatting into account. It doesn't reformat blocks that start with
214 `# fmt: off` and end with `# fmt: on`. `# fmt: on/off` have to be on the same level of
215 indentation. It also recognizes [YAPF](https://github.com/google/yapf)'s block comments
216 to the same effect, as a courtesy for straddling code.
218 ### How _Black_ wraps lines
220 _Black_ ignores previous formatting and applies uniform horizontal and vertical
221 whitespace to your code. The rules for horizontal whitespace can be summarized as: do
222 whatever makes `pycodestyle` happy. The coding style used by _Black_ can be viewed as a
223 strict subset of PEP 8.
225 As for vertical whitespace, _Black_ tries to render one full expression or simple
226 statement per line. If this fits the allotted line length, great.
241 If not, _Black_ will look at the contents of the first outer matching brackets and put
242 that in a separate indented line.
247 ImportantClass.important_method(exc, limit, lookup_lines, capture_locals, extra_argument)
251 ImportantClass.important_method(
252 exc, limit, lookup_lines, capture_locals, extra_argument
256 If that still doesn't fit the bill, it will decompose the internal expression further
257 using the same rule, indenting matching brackets every time. If the contents of the
258 matching brackets pair are comma-separated (like an argument list, or a dict literal,
259 and so on) then _Black_ will first try to keep them on the same line with the matching
260 brackets. If that doesn't work, it will put all of them in separate lines.
265 def very_important_function(template: str, *variables, file: os.PathLike, engine: str, header: bool = True, debug: bool = False):
266 """Applies `variables` to the `template` and writes to `file`."""
267 with open(file, 'w') as f:
272 def very_important_function(
280 """Applies `variables` to the `template` and writes to `file`."""
281 with open(file, "w") as f:
285 _Black_ prefers parentheses over backslashes, and will remove backslashes if found.
290 if some_short_rule1 \
291 and some_short_rule2:
296 if some_short_rule1 and some_short_rule2:
316 Backslashes and multiline strings are one of the two places in the Python grammar that
317 break significant indentation. You never need backslashes, they are used to force the
318 grammar to accept breaks that would otherwise be parse errors. That makes them confusing
319 to look at and brittle to modify. This is why _Black_ always gets rid of them.
321 If you're reaching for backslashes, that's a clear signal that you can do better if you
322 slightly refactor your code. I hope some of the examples above show you that there are
323 many ways in which you can do it.
325 However there is one exception: `with` statements using multiple context managers.
326 Python's grammar does not allow organizing parentheses around the series of context
329 We don't want formatting like:
332 with make_context_manager1() as cm1, make_context_manager2() as cm2, make_context_manager3() as cm3, make_context_manager4() as cm4:
333 ... # nothing to split on - line too long
336 So _Black_ will now format it like this:
340 make_context_manager(1) as cm1, \
341 make_context_manager(2) as cm2, \
342 make_context_manager(3) as cm3, \
343 make_context_manager(4) as cm4 \
345 ... # backslashes and an ugly stranded colon
348 You might have noticed that closing brackets are always dedented and that a trailing
349 comma is always added. Such formatting produces smaller diffs; when you add or remove an
350 element, it's always just one line. Also, having the closing bracket dedented provides a
351 clear delimiter between two distinct sections of the code that otherwise share the same
352 indentation level (like the arguments list and the docstring in the example above).
354 If a data structure literal (tuple, list, set, dict) or a line of "from" imports cannot
355 fit in the allotted length, it's always split into one element per line. This minimizes
356 diffs as well as enables readers of code to find which commit introduced a particular
357 entry. This also makes _Black_ compatible with [isort](https://pypi.org/p/isort/) with
358 the following configuration.
361 <summary>A compatible `.isort.cfg`</summary>
366 include_trailing_comma=True
372 The equivalent command line is:
375 $ isort --multi-line=3 --trailing-comma --force-grid-wrap=0 --use-parentheses --line-width=88 [ file.py ]
382 You probably noticed the peculiar default line length. _Black_ defaults to 88 characters
383 per line, which happens to be 10% over 80. This number was found to produce
384 significantly shorter files than sticking with 80 (the most popular), or even 79 (used
385 by the standard library). In general,
386 [90-ish seems like the wise choice](https://youtu.be/wf-BqAjZb8M?t=260).
388 If you're paid by the line of code you write, you can pass `--line-length` with a lower
389 number. _Black_ will try to respect that. However, sometimes it won't be able to without
390 breaking other rules. In those rare cases, auto-formatted code will exceed your allotted
393 You can also increase it, but remember that people with sight disabilities find it
394 harder to work with line lengths exceeding 100 characters. It also adversely affects
395 side-by-side diff review on typical screen resolutions. Long lines also make it harder
396 to present code neatly in documentation or talk slides.
398 If you're using Flake8, you can bump `max-line-length` to 88 and forget about it.
399 Alternatively, use [Bugbear](https://github.com/PyCQA/flake8-bugbear)'s B950 warning
400 instead of E501 and keep the max line length at 80 which you are probably already using.
401 You'd do it like this:
407 select = C,E,F,W,B,B950
408 ignore = E203, E501, W503
411 You'll find _Black_'s own .flake8 config file is configured like this. Explanation of
412 why W503 and E203 are disabled can be found further in this documentation. And if you're
413 curious about the reasoning behind B950,
414 [Bugbear's documentation](https://github.com/PyCQA/flake8-bugbear#opinionated-warnings)
415 explains it. The tl;dr is "it's like highway speed limits, we won't bother you if you
416 overdo it by a few km/h".
418 **If you're looking for a minimal, black-compatible flake8 configuration:**
428 _Black_ avoids spurious vertical whitespace. This is in the spirit of PEP 8 which says
429 that in-function vertical whitespace should only be used sparingly.
431 _Black_ will allow single empty lines inside functions, and single and double empty
432 lines on module level left by the original editors, except when they're within
433 parenthesized expressions. Since such expressions are always reformatted to fit minimal
434 space, this whitespace is lost.
436 It will also insert proper spacing before and after function definitions. It's one line
437 before and after inner functions and two lines before and after module-level functions
438 and classes. _Black_ will not put empty lines between function/class definitions and
439 standalone comments that immediately precede the given function/class.
441 _Black_ will enforce single empty lines between a class-level docstring and the first
442 following field or method. This conforms to
443 [PEP 257](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/#multi-line-docstrings).
445 _Black_ won't insert empty lines after function docstrings unless that empty line is
446 required due to an inner function starting immediately after.
450 _Black_ will add trailing commas to expressions that are split by comma where each
451 element is on its own line. This includes function signatures.
453 Unnecessary trailing commas are removed if an expression fits in one line. This makes it
454 1% more likely that your line won't exceed the allotted line length limit. Moreover, in
455 this scenario, if you added another argument to your call, you'd probably fit it in the
456 same line anyway. That doesn't make diffs any larger.
458 One exception to removing trailing commas is tuple expressions with just one element. In
459 this case _Black_ won't touch the single trailing comma as this would unexpectedly
460 change the underlying data type. Note that this is also the case when commas are used
461 while indexing. This is a tuple in disguise: `numpy_array[3, ]`.
463 One exception to adding trailing commas is function signatures containing `*`, `*args`,
464 or `**kwargs`. In this case a trailing comma is only safe to use on Python 3.6. _Black_
465 will detect if your file is already 3.6+ only and use trailing commas in this situation.
466 If you wonder how it knows, it looks for f-strings and existing use of trailing commas
467 in function signatures that have stars in them. In other words, if you'd like a trailing
468 comma in this situation and _Black_ didn't recognize it was safe to do so, put it there
469 manually and _Black_ will keep it.
473 _Black_ prefers double quotes (`"` and `"""`) over single quotes (`'` and `'''`). It
474 will replace the latter with the former as long as it does not result in more backslash
477 _Black_ also standardizes string prefixes, making them always lowercase. On top of that,
478 if your code is already Python 3.6+ only or it's using the `unicode_literals` future
479 import, _Black_ will remove `u` from the string prefix as it is meaningless in those
482 The main reason to standardize on a single form of quotes is aesthetics. Having one kind
483 of quotes everywhere reduces reader distraction. It will also enable a future version of
484 _Black_ to merge consecutive string literals that ended up on the same line (see
485 [#26](https://github.com/psf/black/issues/26) for details).
487 Why settle on double quotes? They anticipate apostrophes in English text. They match the
488 docstring standard described in
489 [PEP 257](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/#what-is-a-docstring). An empty
490 string in double quotes (`""`) is impossible to confuse with a one double-quote
491 regardless of fonts and syntax highlighting used. On top of this, double quotes for
492 strings are consistent with C which Python interacts a lot with.
494 On certain keyboard layouts like US English, typing single quotes is a bit easier than
495 double quotes. The latter requires use of the Shift key. My recommendation here is to
496 keep using whatever is faster to type and let _Black_ handle the transformation.
498 If you are adopting _Black_ in a large project with pre-existing string conventions
500 ["single quotes for data, double quotes for human-readable strings"](https://stackoverflow.com/a/56190)),
501 you can pass `--skip-string-normalization` on the command line. This is meant as an
502 adoption helper, avoid using this for new projects.
506 _Black_ standardizes most numeric literals to use lowercase letters for the syntactic
507 parts and uppercase letters for the digits themselves: `0xAB` instead of `0XAB` and
508 `1e10` instead of `1E10`. Python 2 long literals are styled as `2L` instead of `2l` to
509 avoid confusion between `l` and `1`.
511 ### Line breaks & binary operators
513 _Black_ will break a line before a binary operator when splitting a block of code over
514 multiple lines. This is so that _Black_ is compliant with the recent changes in the
515 [PEP 8](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#should-a-line-break-before-or-after-a-binary-operator)
516 style guide, which emphasizes that this approach improves readability.
518 This behaviour may raise `W503 line break before binary operator` warnings in style
519 guide enforcement tools like Flake8. Since `W503` is not PEP 8 compliant, you should
520 tell Flake8 to ignore these warnings.
525 [recommends](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#whitespace-in-expressions-and-statements)
526 to treat `:` in slices as a binary operator with the lowest priority, and to leave an
527 equal amount of space on either side, except if a parameter is omitted (e.g.
528 `ham[1 + 1 :]`). It recommends no spaces around `:` operators for "simple expressions"
529 (`ham[lower:upper]`), and extra space for "complex expressions"
530 (`ham[lower : upper + offset]`). _Black_ treats anything more than variable names as
531 "complex" (`ham[lower : upper + 1]`). It also states that for extended slices, both `:`
532 operators have to have the same amount of spacing, except if a parameter is omitted
533 (`ham[1 + 1 ::]`). _Black_ enforces these rules consistently.
535 This behaviour may raise `E203 whitespace before ':'` warnings in style guide
536 enforcement tools like Flake8. Since `E203` is not PEP 8 compliant, you should tell
537 Flake8 to ignore these warnings.
541 Some parentheses are optional in the Python grammar. Any expression can be wrapped in a
542 pair of parentheses to form an atom. There are a few interesting cases:
546 - `for (...) in (...):`
547 - `assert (...), (...)`
548 - `from X import (...)`
551 - `target: type = (...)`
552 - `some, *un, packing = (...)`
553 - `augmented += (...)`
555 In those cases, parentheses are removed when the entire statement fits in one line, or
556 if the inner expression doesn't have any delimiters to further split on. If there is
557 only a single delimiter and the expression starts or ends with a bracket, the
558 parenthesis can also be successfully omitted since the existing bracket pair will
559 organize the expression neatly anyway. Otherwise, the parentheses are added.
561 Please note that _Black_ does not add or remove any additional nested parentheses that
562 you might want to have for clarity or further code organization. For example those
563 parentheses are not going to be removed:
566 return not (this or that)
567 decision = (maybe.this() and values > 0) or (maybe.that() and values < 0)
572 Some popular APIs, like ORMs, use call chaining. This API style is known as a
573 [fluent interface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluent_interface). _Black_ formats
574 those by treating dots that follow a call or an indexing operation like a very low
575 priority delimiter. It's easier to show the behavior than to explain it. Look at the
579 def example(session):
581 session.query(models.Customer.id)
583 models.Customer.account_id == account_id,
584 models.Customer.email == email_address,
586 .order_by(models.Customer.id.asc())
591 ### Typing stub files
593 PEP 484 describes the syntax for type hints in Python. One of the use cases for typing
594 is providing type annotations for modules which cannot contain them directly (they might
595 be written in C, or they might be third-party, or their implementation may be overly
599 [stub files with the `.pyi` file extension](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0484/#stub-files)
600 can be used to describe typing information for an external module. Those stub files omit
601 the implementation of classes and functions they describe, instead they only contain the
602 structure of the file (listing globals, functions, and classes with their members). The
603 recommended code style for those files is more terse than PEP 8:
605 - prefer `...` on the same line as the class/function signature;
606 - avoid vertical whitespace between consecutive module-level functions, names, or
607 methods and fields within a single class;
608 - use a single blank line between top-level class definitions, or none if the classes
611 _Black_ enforces the above rules. There are additional guidelines for formatting `.pyi`
612 file that are not enforced yet but might be in a future version of the formatter:
614 - all function bodies should be empty (contain `...` instead of the body);
615 - do not use docstrings;
616 - prefer `...` over `pass`;
617 - for arguments with a default, use `...` instead of the actual default;
618 - avoid using string literals in type annotations, stub files support forward references
619 natively (like Python 3.7 code with `from __future__ import annotations`);
620 - use variable annotations instead of type comments, even for stubs that target older
622 - for arguments that default to `None`, use `Optional[]` explicitly;
623 - use `float` instead of `Union[int, float]`.
627 Early versions of _Black_ used to be absolutist in some respects. They took after its
628 initial author. This was fine at the time as it made the implementation simpler and
629 there were not many users anyway. Not many edge cases were reported. As a mature tool,
630 _Black_ does make some exceptions to rules it otherwise holds. This section documents
631 what those exceptions are and why this is the case.
633 ### The magic trailing comma
635 _Black_ in general does not take existing formatting into account.
637 However, there are cases where you put a short collection or function call in your code
638 but you anticipate it will grow in the future.
644 "en_us": "English (US)",
649 Early versions of _Black_ used to ruthlessly collapse those into one line (it fits!).
650 Now, you can communicate that you don't want that by putting a trailing comma in the
651 collection yourself. When you do, _Black_ will know to always explode your collection
652 into one item per line.
654 How do you make it stop? Just delete that trailing comma and _Black_ will collapse your
655 collection into one line if it fits.
657 ### r"strings" and R"strings"
659 _Black_ normalizes string quotes as well as string prefixes, making them lowercase. One
660 exception to this rule is r-strings. It turns out that the very popular
661 [MagicPython](https://github.com/MagicStack/MagicPython/) syntax highlighter, used by
662 default by (among others) GitHub and Visual Studio Code, differentiates between
663 r-strings and R-strings. The former are syntax highlighted as regular expressions while
664 the latter are treated as true raw strings with no special semantics.
668 _Black_ is able to read project-specific default values for its command line options
669 from a `pyproject.toml` file. This is especially useful for specifying custom
670 `--include` and `--exclude` patterns for your project.
672 **Pro-tip**: If you're asking yourself "Do I need to configure anything?" the answer is
673 "No". _Black_ is all about sensible defaults.
675 ### What on Earth is a `pyproject.toml` file?
677 [PEP 518](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0518/) defines `pyproject.toml` as a
678 configuration file to store build system requirements for Python projects. With the help
679 of tools like [Poetry](https://poetry.eustace.io/) or
680 [Flit](https://flit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) it can fully replace the need for
681 `setup.py` and `setup.cfg` files.
683 ### Where _Black_ looks for the file
685 By default _Black_ looks for `pyproject.toml` starting from the common base directory of
686 all files and directories passed on the command line. If it's not there, it looks in
687 parent directories. It stops looking when it finds the file, or a `.git` directory, or a
688 `.hg` directory, or the root of the file system, whichever comes first.
690 If you're formatting standard input, _Black_ will look for configuration starting from
691 the current working directory.
693 You can also explicitly specify the path to a particular file that you want with
694 `--config`. In this situation _Black_ will not look for any other file.
696 If you're running with `--verbose`, you will see a blue message if a file was found and
699 Please note `blackd` will not use `pyproject.toml` configuration.
701 ### Configuration format
703 As the file extension suggests, `pyproject.toml` is a
704 [TOML](https://github.com/toml-lang/toml) file. It contains separate sections for
705 different tools. _Black_ is using the `[tool.black]` section. The option keys are the
706 same as long names of options on the command line.
708 Note that you have to use single-quoted strings in TOML for regular expressions. It's
709 the equivalent of r-strings in Python. Multiline strings are treated as verbose regular
710 expressions by Black. Use `[ ]` to denote a significant space character.
713 <summary>Example `pyproject.toml`</summary>
718 target-version = ['py37']
724 \.eggs # exclude a few common directories in the
725 | \.git # root of the project
735 | foo.py # also separately exclude a file named foo.py in
736 # the root of the project
745 Command-line options have defaults that you can see in `--help`. A `pyproject.toml` can
746 override those defaults. Finally, options provided by the user on the command line
749 _Black_ will only ever use one `pyproject.toml` file during an entire run. It doesn't
750 look for multiple files, and doesn't compose configuration from different levels of the
753 ## Editor integration
757 Options include the following:
759 - [purcell/reformatter.el](https://github.com/purcell/reformatter.el)
760 - [proofit404/blacken](https://github.com/proofit404/blacken)
761 - [Elpy](https://github.com/jorgenschaefer/elpy).
763 ### PyCharm/IntelliJ IDEA
771 2. Locate your `black` installation folder.
773 On macOS / Linux / BSD:
777 /usr/local/bin/black # possible location
784 %LocalAppData%\Programs\Python\Python36-32\Scripts\black.exe # possible location
787 Note that if you are using a virtual environment detected by PyCharm, this is an
788 unneeded step. In this case the path to `black` is `$PyInterpreterDirectory$/black`.
790 3. Open External tools in PyCharm/IntelliJ IDEA
794 `PyCharm -> Preferences -> Tools -> External Tools`
796 On Windows / Linux / BSD:
798 `File -> Settings -> Tools -> External Tools`
800 4. Click the + icon to add a new external tool with the following values:
803 - Description: Black is the uncompromising Python code formatter.
804 - Program: <install_location_from_step_2>
805 - Arguments: `"$FilePath$"`
807 5. Format the currently opened file by selecting `Tools -> External Tools -> black`.
809 - Alternatively, you can set a keyboard shortcut by navigating to
810 `Preferences or Settings -> Keymap -> External Tools -> External Tools - Black`.
812 6. Optionally, run _Black_ on every file save:
814 1. Make sure you have the
815 [File Watcher](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7177-file-watchers) plugin
817 2. Go to `Preferences or Settings -> Tools -> File Watchers` and click `+` to add a
821 - Scope: Project Files
822 - Program: <install_location_from_step_2>
823 - Arguments: `$FilePath$`
824 - Output paths to refresh: `$FilePath$`
825 - Working directory: `$ProjectFileDir$`
827 - Uncheck "Auto-save edited files to trigger the watcher"
831 Wing supports black via the OS Commands tool, as explained in the Wing documentation on
832 [pep8 formatting](https://wingware.com/doc/edit/pep8). The detailed procedure is:
840 2. Make sure it runs from the command line, e.g.
846 3. In Wing IDE, activate the **OS Commands** panel and define the command **black** to
847 execute black on the currently selected file:
849 - Use the Tools -> OS Commands menu selection
850 - click on **+** in **OS Commands** -> New: Command line..
852 - Command Line: black %s
853 - I/O Encoding: Use Default
855 - [x] Raise OS Commands when executed
856 - [x] Auto-save files before execution
859 4. Select a file in the editor and press **F1** , or whatever key binding you selected
860 in step 3, to reformat the file.
864 Commands and shortcuts:
866 - `:Black` to format the entire file (ranges not supported);
867 - `:BlackUpgrade` to upgrade _Black_ inside the virtualenv;
868 - `:BlackVersion` to get the current version of _Black_ inside the virtualenv.
872 - `g:black_fast` (defaults to `0`)
873 - `g:black_linelength` (defaults to `88`)
874 - `g:black_skip_string_normalization` (defaults to `0`)
875 - `g:black_virtualenv` (defaults to `~/.vim/black` or `~/.local/share/nvim/black`)
877 To install with [vim-plug](https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug):
880 Plug 'psf/black', { 'branch': 'stable' }
883 or with [Vundle](https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim):
889 and execute the following in a terminal:
892 $ cd ~/.vim/bundle/black
893 $ git checkout origin/stable -b stable
896 or you can copy the plugin from
897 [plugin/black.vim](https://github.com/psf/black/blob/stable/plugin/black.vim).
900 mkdir -p ~/.vim/pack/python/start/black/plugin
901 curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/psf/black/master/plugin/black.vim -o ~/.vim/pack/python/start/black/plugin/black.vim
904 Let me know if this requires any changes to work with Vim 8's builtin `packadd`, or
907 This plugin **requires Vim 7.0+ built with Python 3.6+ support**. It needs Python 3.6 to
908 be able to run _Black_ inside the Vim process which is much faster than calling an
911 On first run, the plugin creates its own virtualenv using the right Python version and
912 automatically installs _Black_. You can upgrade it later by calling `:BlackUpgrade` and
915 If you need to do anything special to make your virtualenv work and install _Black_ (for
916 example you want to run a version from master), create a virtualenv manually and point
917 `g:black_virtualenv` to it. The plugin will use it.
919 To run _Black_ on save, add the following line to `.vimrc` or `init.vim`:
922 autocmd BufWritePre *.py execute ':Black'
925 To run _Black_ on a key press (e.g. F9 below), add this:
928 nnoremap <F9> :Black<CR>
931 **How to get Vim with Python 3.6?** On Ubuntu 17.10 Vim comes with Python 3.6 by
932 default. On macOS with Homebrew run: `brew install vim`. When building Vim from source,
933 use: `./configure --enable-python3interp=yes`. There's many guides online how to do
936 **I get an import error when using _Black_ from a virtual environment**: If you get an
937 error message like this:
940 Traceback (most recent call last):
941 File "<string>", line 63, in <module>
942 File "/home/gui/.vim/black/lib/python3.7/site-packages/black.py", line 45, in <module>
943 from typed_ast import ast3, ast27
944 File "/home/gui/.vim/black/lib/python3.7/site-packages/typed_ast/ast3.py", line 40, in <module>
945 from typed_ast import _ast3
946 ImportError: /home/gui/.vim/black/lib/python3.7/site-packages/typed_ast/_ast3.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so: undefined symbool: PyExc_KeyboardInterrupt
949 Then you need to install `typed_ast` and `regex` directly from the source code. The
950 error happens because `pip` will download [Python wheels](https://pythonwheels.com/) if
951 they are available. Python wheels are a new standard of distributing Python packages and
952 packages that have Cython and extensions written in C are already compiled, so the
953 installation is much more faster. The problem here is that somehow the Python
954 environment inside Vim does not match with those already compiled C extensions and these
955 kind of errors are the result. Luckily there is an easy fix: installing the packages
956 from the source code.
958 The two packages that cause the problem are:
960 - [regex](https://pypi.org/project/regex/)
961 - [typed-ast](https://pypi.org/project/typed-ast/)
963 Now remove those two packages:
966 $ pip uninstall regex typed-ast -y
969 And now you can install them with:
972 $ pip install --no-binary :all: regex typed-ast
975 The C extensions will be compiled and now Vim's Python environment will match. Note that
976 you need to have the GCC compiler and the Python development files installed (on
977 Ubuntu/Debian do `sudo apt-get install build-essential python3-dev`).
979 If you later want to update _Black_, you should do it like this:
982 $ pip install -U black --no-binary regex,typed-ast
985 ### Visual Studio Code
988 [Python extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.python)
989 ([instructions](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/editing#_formatting)).
993 Use [sublack plugin](https://github.com/jgirardet/sublack).
995 ### Jupyter Notebook Magic
997 Use [blackcellmagic](https://github.com/csurfer/blackcellmagic).
999 ### Python Language Server
1001 If your editor supports the [Language Server Protocol](https://langserver.org/) (Atom,
1002 Sublime Text, Visual Studio Code and many more), you can use the
1003 [Python Language Server](https://github.com/palantir/python-language-server) with the
1004 [pyls-black](https://github.com/rupert/pyls-black) plugin.
1008 Use [python-black](https://atom.io/packages/python-black).
1012 Add the following hook to your kakrc, then run black with `:format`.
1015 hook global WinSetOption filetype=python %{
1016 set-option window formatcmd 'black -q -'
1022 Use [Thonny-black-code-format](https://github.com/Franccisco/thonny-black-code-format).
1026 Other editors will require external contributions.
1028 Patches welcome! ✨ 🍰 ✨
1030 Any tool that can pipe code through _Black_ using its stdio mode (just
1031 [use `-` as the file name](https://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/special-chars.html#DASHREF2)).
1032 The formatted code will be returned on stdout (unless `--check` was passed). _Black_
1033 will still emit messages on stderr but that shouldn't affect your use case.
1035 This can be used for example with PyCharm's or IntelliJ's
1036 [File Watchers](https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/file-watchers.html).
1040 `blackd` is a small HTTP server that exposes _Black_'s functionality over a simple
1041 protocol. The main benefit of using it is to avoid paying the cost of starting up a new
1042 _Black_ process every time you want to blacken a file.
1046 `blackd` is not packaged alongside _Black_ by default because it has additional
1047 dependencies. You will need to do `pip install black[d]` to install it.
1049 You can start the server on the default port, binding only to the local interface by
1050 running `blackd`. You will see a single line mentioning the server's version, and the
1051 host and port it's listening on. `blackd` will then print an access log similar to most
1052 web servers on standard output, merged with any exception traces caused by invalid
1053 formatting requests.
1055 `blackd` provides even less options than _Black_. You can see them by running
1059 Usage: blackd [OPTIONS]
1062 --bind-host TEXT Address to bind the server to.
1063 --bind-port INTEGER Port to listen on
1064 --version Show the version and exit.
1065 -h, --help Show this message and exit.
1068 There is no official blackd client tool (yet!). You can test that blackd is working
1072 blackd --bind-port 9090 & # or let blackd choose a port
1073 curl -s -XPOST "localhost:9090" -d "print('valid')"
1078 `blackd` only accepts `POST` requests at the `/` path. The body of the request should
1079 contain the python source code to be formatted, encoded according to the `charset` field
1080 in the `Content-Type` request header. If no `charset` is specified, `blackd` assumes
1083 There are a few HTTP headers that control how the source is formatted. These correspond
1084 to command line flags for _Black_. There is one exception to this: `X-Protocol-Version`
1085 which if present, should have the value `1`, otherwise the request is rejected with
1086 `HTTP 501` (Not Implemented).
1088 The headers controlling how code is formatted are:
1090 - `X-Line-Length`: corresponds to the `--line-length` command line flag.
1091 - `X-Skip-String-Normalization`: corresponds to the `--skip-string-normalization`
1092 command line flag. If present and its value is not the empty string, no string
1093 normalization will be performed.
1094 - `X-Fast-Or-Safe`: if set to `fast`, `blackd` will act as _Black_ does when passed the
1095 `--fast` command line flag.
1096 - `X-Python-Variant`: if set to `pyi`, `blackd` will act as _Black_ does when passed the
1097 `--pyi` command line flag. Otherwise, its value must correspond to a Python version or
1098 a set of comma-separated Python versions, optionally prefixed with `py`. For example,
1099 to request code that is compatible with Python 3.5 and 3.6, set the header to
1101 - `X-Diff`: corresponds to the `--diff` command line flag. If present, a diff of the
1102 formats will be output.
1104 If any of these headers are set to invalid values, `blackd` returns a `HTTP 400` error
1105 response, mentioning the name of the problematic header in the message body.
1107 Apart from the above, `blackd` can produce the following response codes:
1109 - `HTTP 204`: If the input is already well-formatted. The response body is empty.
1110 - `HTTP 200`: If formatting was needed on the input. The response body contains the
1111 blackened Python code, and the `Content-Type` header is set accordingly.
1112 - `HTTP 400`: If the input contains a syntax error. Details of the error are returned in
1114 - `HTTP 500`: If there was any kind of error while trying to format the input. The
1115 response body contains a textual representation of the error.
1117 The response headers include a `X-Black-Version` header containing the version of
1120 ## Version control integration
1122 Use [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/). Once you
1123 [have it installed](https://pre-commit.com/#install), add this to the
1124 `.pre-commit-config.yaml` in your repository:
1128 - repo: https://github.com/psf/black
1132 language_version: python3.6
1135 Then run `pre-commit install` and you're ready to go.
1137 Avoid using `args` in the hook. Instead, store necessary configuration in
1138 `pyproject.toml` so that editors and command-line usage of Black all behave consistently
1139 for your project. See _Black_'s own
1140 [pyproject.toml](https://github.com/psf/black/blob/master/pyproject.toml) for an
1143 If you're already using Python 3.7, switch the `language_version` accordingly. Finally,
1144 `stable` is a tag that is pinned to the latest release on PyPI. If you'd rather run on
1145 master, this is also an option.
1147 ## Ignoring unmodified files
1149 _Black_ remembers files it has already formatted, unless the `--diff` flag is used or
1150 code is passed via standard input. This information is stored per-user. The exact
1151 location of the file depends on the _Black_ version and the system on which _Black_ is
1152 run. The file is non-portable. The standard location on common operating systems is:
1155 `C:\\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\black\black\Cache\<version>\cache.<line-length>.<file-mode>.pickle`
1157 `/Users/<username>/Library/Caches/black/<version>/cache.<line-length>.<file-mode>.pickle`
1159 `/home/<username>/.cache/black/<version>/cache.<line-length>.<file-mode>.pickle`
1161 `file-mode` is an int flag that determines whether the file was formatted as 3.6+ only,
1162 as .pyi, and whether string normalization was omitted.
1164 To override the location of these files on macOS or Linux, set the environment variable
1165 `XDG_CACHE_HOME` to your preferred location. For example, if you want to put the cache
1166 in the directory you're running _Black_ from, set `XDG_CACHE_HOME=.cache`. _Black_ will
1167 then write the above files to `.cache/black/<version>/`.
1171 The following notable open-source projects trust _Black_ with enforcing a consistent
1172 code style: pytest, tox, Pyramid, Django Channels, Hypothesis, attrs, SQLAlchemy,
1173 Poetry, PyPA applications (Warehouse, Pipenv, virtualenv), pandas, Pillow, every Datadog
1174 Agent Integration, Home Assistant.
1176 The following organizations use _Black_: Dropbox.
1178 Are we missing anyone? Let us know.
1183 [writer](https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dusty+phillips):
1185 > _Black_ is opinionated so you don't have to be.
1187 **Hynek Schlawack**, [creator of `attrs`](https://www.attrs.org/), core developer of
1188 Twisted and CPython:
1190 > An auto-formatter that doesn't suck is all I want for Xmas!
1192 **Carl Meyer**, [Django](https://www.djangoproject.com/) core developer:
1194 > At least the name is good.
1196 **Kenneth Reitz**, creator of [`requests`](http://python-requests.org/) and
1197 [`pipenv`](https://docs.pipenv.org/):
1199 > This vastly improves the formatting of our code. Thanks a ton!
1203 Use the badge in your project's README.md:
1206 [![Code style: black](https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg)](https://github.com/psf/black)
1209 Using the badge in README.rst:
1212 .. image:: https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg
1213 :target: https://github.com/psf/black
1217 [![Code style: black](https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg)](https://github.com/psf/black)
1223 ## Contributing to _Black_
1225 In terms of inspiration, _Black_ is about as configurable as _gofmt_. This is
1228 Bug reports and fixes are always welcome! However, before you suggest a new feature or
1229 configuration knob, ask yourself why you want it. If it enables better integration with
1230 some workflow, fixes an inconsistency, speeds things up, and so on - go for it! On the
1231 other hand, if your answer is "because I don't like a particular formatting" then you're
1232 not ready to embrace _Black_ yet. Such changes are unlikely to get accepted. You can
1233 still try but prepare to be disappointed.
1235 More details can be found in
1236 [CONTRIBUTING](https://github.com/psf/black/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md).
1240 The log's become rather long. It moved to its own file.
1242 See [CHANGES](https://github.com/psf/black/blob/master/CHANGES.md).
1246 Glued together by [Łukasz Langa](mailto:lukasz@langa.pl).
1248 Maintained with [Carol Willing](mailto:carolcode@willingconsulting.com),
1249 [Carl Meyer](mailto:carl@oddbird.net),
1250 [Jelle Zijlstra](mailto:jelle.zijlstra@gmail.com),
1251 [Mika Naylor](mailto:mail@autophagy.io),
1252 [Zsolt Dollenstein](mailto:zsol.zsol@gmail.com), and
1253 [Cooper Lees](mailto:me@cooperlees.com).
1255 Multiple contributions by:
1257 - [Abdur-Rahmaan Janhangeer](mailto:arj.python@gmail.com)
1258 - [Adam Johnson](mailto:me@adamj.eu)
1259 - [Alexander Huynh](mailto:github@grande.coffee)
1260 - [Andrew Thorp](mailto:andrew.thorp.dev@gmail.com)
1261 - [Andrey](mailto:dyuuus@yandex.ru)
1262 - [Andy Freeland](mailto:andy@andyfreeland.net)
1263 - [Anthony Sottile](mailto:asottile@umich.edu)
1264 - [Arjaan Buijk](mailto:arjaan.buijk@gmail.com)
1265 - [Artem Malyshev](mailto:proofit404@gmail.com)
1266 - [Asger Hautop Drewsen](mailto:asgerdrewsen@gmail.com)
1267 - [Augie Fackler](mailto:raf@durin42.com)
1268 - [Aviskar KC](mailto:aviskarkc10@gmail.com)
1269 - [Benjamin Woodruff](mailto:github@benjam.info)
1270 - [Brandt Bucher](mailto:brandtbucher@gmail.com)
1272 - [Christian Heimes](mailto:christian@python.org)
1273 - [Chuck Wooters](mailto:chuck.wooters@microsoft.com)
1274 - [Cooper Ry Lees](mailto:me@cooperlees.com)
1275 - [Daniel Hahler](mailto:github@thequod.de)
1276 - [Daniel M. Capella](mailto:polycitizen@gmail.com)
1279 - [Eli Treuherz](mailto:eli@treuherz.com)
1280 - [Florent Thiery](mailto:fthiery@gmail.com)
1283 - [Ivan Katanić](mailto:ivan.katanic@gmail.com)
1284 - [Jason Fried](mailto:me@jasonfried.info)
1285 - [jgirardet](mailto:ijkl@netc.fr)
1286 - [Joe Antonakakis](mailto:jma353@cornell.edu)
1287 - [Jon Dufresne](mailto:jon.dufresne@gmail.com)
1288 - [Jonas Obrist](mailto:ojiidotch@gmail.com)
1289 - [Josh Bode](mailto:joshbode@fastmail.com)
1290 - [Juan Luis Cano Rodríguez](mailto:hello@juanlu.space)
1291 - [Katie McLaughlin](mailto:katie@glasnt.com)
1293 - [Linus Groh](mailto:mail@linusgroh.de)
1294 - [Luka Sterbic](mailto:luka.sterbic@gmail.com)
1296 - [Matt VanEseltine](mailto:vaneseltine@gmail.com)
1297 - [Michael Flaxman](mailto:michael.flaxman@gmail.com)
1298 - [Michael J. Sullivan](mailto:sully@msully.net)
1299 - [Michael McClimon](mailto:michael@mcclimon.org)
1300 - [Miguel Gaiowski](mailto:miggaiowski@gmail.com)
1301 - [Mike](mailto:roshi@fedoraproject.org)
1302 - [Min ho Kim](mailto:minho42@gmail.com)
1303 - [Miroslav Shubernetskiy](mailto:miroslav@miki725.com)
1304 - [Neraste](mailto:neraste.herr10@gmail.com)
1305 - [Ofek Lev](mailto:ofekmeister@gmail.com)
1306 - [Osaetin Daniel](mailto:osaetindaniel@gmail.com)
1307 - [Pablo Galindo](mailto:Pablogsal@gmail.com)
1308 - [Peter Bengtsson](mailto:mail@peterbe.com)
1310 - [Rishikesh Jha](mailto:rishijha424@gmail.com)
1311 - [Stavros Korokithakis](mailto:hi@stavros.io)
1312 - [Stephen Rosen](mailto:sirosen@globus.org)
1313 - [Sunil Kapil](mailto:snlkapil@gmail.com)
1314 - [Thom Lu](mailto:thomas.c.lu@gmail.com)
1315 - [Tom Christie](mailto:tom@tomchristie.com)
1316 - [Tzu-ping Chung](mailto:uranusjr@gmail.com)
1317 - [Utsav Shah](mailto:ukshah2@illinois.edu)
1319 - [Vishwas B Sharma](mailto:sharma.vishwas88@gmail.com)
1320 - [Yngve Høiseth](mailto:yngve@hoiseth.net)
1321 - [Yurii Karabas](mailto:1998uriyyo@gmail.com)