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/ambv/black/master/docs/_static/logo2-readme.png)
2 <h2 align="center">The Uncompromising Code Formatter</h2>
5 <a href="https://travis-ci.org/ambv/black"><img alt="Build Status" src="https://travis-ci.org/ambv/black.svg?branch=master"></a>
6 <a href="https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/?badge=stable"><img alt="Documentation Status" src="https://readthedocs.org/projects/black/badge/?version=stable"></a>
7 <a href="https://coveralls.io/github/ambv/black?branch=master"><img alt="Coverage Status" src="https://coveralls.io/repos/github/ambv/black/badge.svg?branch=master"></a>
8 <a href="https://github.com/ambv/black/blob/master/LICENSE"><img alt="License: MIT" src="https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/_static/license.svg"></a>
9 <a href="https://pypi.org/project/black/"><img alt="PyPI" src="https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/_static/pypi.svg"></a>
10 <a href="https://pepy.tech/project/black"><img alt="Downloads" src="https://pepy.tech/badge/black"></a>
11 <a href="https://github.com/ambv/black"><img alt="Code style: black" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg"></a>
14 > “Any color you like.”
17 *Black* is the uncompromising Python code formatter. By using it, you
18 agree to cede control over minutiae of hand-formatting. In return,
19 *Black* gives you speed, determinism, and freedom from `pycodestyle`
20 nagging about formatting. You will save time and mental energy for
21 more important matters.
23 Blackened code looks the same regardless of the project you're reading.
24 Formatting becomes transparent after a while and you can focus on the
27 *Black* makes code review faster by producing the smallest diffs
30 Try it out now using the [Black Playground](https://black.now.sh).
34 *Contents:* **[Installation and usage](#installation-and-usage)** |
35 **[Code style](#the-black-code-style)** |
36 **[pyproject.toml](#pyprojecttoml)** |
37 **[Editor integration](#editor-integration)** |
38 **[blackd](#blackd)** |
39 **[Version control integration](#version-control-integration)** |
40 **[Ignoring unmodified files](#ignoring-unmodified-files)** |
41 **[Testimonials](#testimonials)** |
42 **[Show your style](#show-your-style)** |
43 **[Contributing](#contributing-to-black)** |
44 **[Change Log](#change-log)** |
45 **[Authors](#authors)**
49 ## Installation and usage
53 *Black* can be installed by running `pip install black`. It requires
54 Python 3.6.0+ to run but you can reformat Python 2 code with it, too.
59 To get started right away with sensible defaults:
62 black {source_file_or_directory}
65 ### Command line options
67 *Black* doesn't provide many options. You can list them by running
71 black [OPTIONS] [SRC]...
74 -l, --line-length INTEGER Where to wrap around. [default: 88]
75 --py36 Allow using Python 3.6-only syntax on all input
76 files. This will put trailing commas in function
77 signatures and calls also after *args and
78 **kwargs. [default: per-file auto-detection]
79 --pyi Format all input files like typing stubs
80 regardless of file extension (useful when piping
81 source on standard input).
82 -S, --skip-string-normalization
83 Don't normalize string quotes or prefixes.
84 -N, --skip-numeric-underscore-normalization
85 Don't normalize underscores in numeric literals.
86 --check Don't write the files back, just return the
87 status. Return code 0 means nothing would
88 change. Return code 1 means some files would be
89 reformatted. Return code 123 means there was an
91 --diff Don't write the files back, just output a diff
92 for each file on stdout.
93 --fast / --safe If --fast given, skip temporary sanity checks.
95 --include TEXT A regular expression that matches files and
96 directories that should be included on
97 recursive searches. On Windows, use forward
98 slashes for directories. [default: \.pyi?$]
99 --exclude TEXT A regular expression that matches files and
100 directories that should be excluded on
101 recursive searches. On Windows, use forward
102 slashes for directories. [default:
103 build/|buck-out/|dist/|_build/|\.eggs/|\.git/|
104 \.hg/|\.mypy_cache/|\.nox/|\.tox/|\.venv/]
105 -q, --quiet Don't emit non-error messages to stderr. Errors
106 are still emitted, silence those with
108 -v, --verbose Also emit messages to stderr about files
109 that were not changed or were ignored due to
111 --version Show the version and exit.
112 --config PATH Read configuration from PATH.
113 --help Show this message and exit.
116 *Black* is a well-behaved Unix-style command-line tool:
117 * it does nothing if no sources are passed to it;
118 * it will read from standard input and write to standard output if `-`
119 is used as the filename;
120 * it only outputs messages to users on standard error;
121 * exits with code 0 unless an internal error occurred (or `--check` was
125 ### NOTE: This is a beta product
127 *Black* is already successfully used by several projects, small and big.
128 It also sports a decent test suite. However, it is still very new.
129 Things will probably be wonky for a while. This is made explicit by the
130 "Beta" trove classifier, as well as by the "b" in the version number.
131 What this means for you is that **until the formatter becomes stable,
132 you should expect some formatting to change in the future**. That being
133 said, no drastic stylistic changes are planned, mostly responses to bug
136 Also, as a temporary safety measure, *Black* will check that the
137 reformatted code still produces a valid AST that is equivalent to the
138 original. This slows it down. If you're feeling confident, use
142 ## The *Black* code style
144 *Black* reformats entire files in place. It is not configurable. It
145 doesn't take previous formatting into account. It doesn't reformat
146 blocks that start with `# fmt: off` and end with `# fmt: on`. `# fmt: on/off`
147 have to be on the same level of indentation. It also
148 recognizes [YAPF](https://github.com/google/yapf)'s block comments to
149 the same effect, as a courtesy for straddling code.
152 ### How *Black* wraps lines
154 *Black* ignores previous formatting and applies uniform horizontal
155 and vertical whitespace to your code. The rules for horizontal
156 whitespace can be summarized as: do whatever makes `pycodestyle` happy.
157 The coding style used by *Black* can be viewed as a strict subset of
160 As for vertical whitespace, *Black* tries to render one full expression
161 or simple statement per line. If this fits the allotted line length,
176 If not, *Black* will look at the contents of the first outer matching
177 brackets and put that in a separate indented line.
181 TracebackException.from_exception(exc, limit, lookup_lines, capture_locals)
185 TracebackException.from_exception(
186 exc, limit, lookup_lines, capture_locals
190 If that still doesn't fit the bill, it will decompose the internal
191 expression further using the same rule, indenting matching brackets
192 every time. If the contents of the matching brackets pair are
193 comma-separated (like an argument list, or a dict literal, and so on)
194 then *Black* will first try to keep them on the same line with the
195 matching brackets. If that doesn't work, it will put all of them in
200 def very_important_function(template: str, *variables, file: os.PathLike, debug: bool = False):
201 """Applies `variables` to the `template` and writes to `file`."""
202 with open(file, 'w') as f:
207 def very_important_function(
213 """Applies `variables` to the `template` and writes to `file`."""
214 with open(file, "w") as f:
218 You might have noticed that closing brackets are always dedented and
219 that a trailing comma is always added. Such formatting produces smaller
220 diffs; when you add or remove an element, it's always just one line.
221 Also, having the closing bracket dedented provides a clear delimiter
222 between two distinct sections of the code that otherwise share the same
223 indentation level (like the arguments list and the docstring in the
226 If a data structure literal (tuple, list, set, dict) or a line of "from"
227 imports cannot fit in the allotted length, it's always split into one
228 element per line. This minimizes diffs as well as enables readers of
229 code to find which commit introduced a particular entry. This also
230 makes *Black* compatible with [isort](https://pypi.org/p/isort/) with
231 the following configuration.
234 <summary>A compatible `.isort.cfg`</summary>
239 include_trailing_comma=True
245 The equivalent command line is:
247 $ isort --multi-line=3 --trailing-comma --force-grid-wrap=0 --use-parentheses --line-width=88 [ file.py ]
253 You probably noticed the peculiar default line length. *Black* defaults
254 to 88 characters per line, which happens to be 10% over 80. This number
255 was found to produce significantly shorter files than sticking with 80
256 (the most popular), or even 79 (used by the standard library). In
257 general, [90-ish seems like the wise choice](https://youtu.be/wf-BqAjZb8M?t=260).
259 If you're paid by the line of code you write, you can pass
260 `--line-length` with a lower number. *Black* will try to respect that.
261 However, sometimes it won't be able to without breaking other rules. In
262 those rare cases, auto-formatted code will exceed your allotted limit.
264 You can also increase it, but remember that people with sight disabilities
265 find it harder to work with line lengths exceeding 100 characters.
266 It also adversely affects side-by-side diff review on typical screen
267 resolutions. Long lines also make it harder to present code neatly
268 in documentation or talk slides.
270 If you're using Flake8, you can bump `max-line-length` to 88 and forget
271 about it. Alternatively, use [Bugbear](https://github.com/PyCQA/flake8-bugbear)'s
272 B950 warning instead of E501 and keep the max line length at 80 which
273 you are probably already using. You'd do it like this:
278 select = C,E,F,W,B,B950
282 You'll find *Black*'s own .flake8 config file is configured like this.
283 If you're curious about the reasoning behind B950,
284 [Bugbear's documentation](https://github.com/PyCQA/flake8-bugbear#opinionated-warnings)
285 explains it. The tl;dr is "it's like highway speed limits, we won't
286 bother you if you overdo it by a few km/h".
291 *Black* avoids spurious vertical whitespace. This is in the spirit of
292 PEP 8 which says that in-function vertical whitespace should only be
295 *Black* will allow single empty lines inside functions, and single and
296 double empty lines on module level left by the original editors, except
297 when they're within parenthesized expressions. Since such expressions
298 are always reformatted to fit minimal space, this whitespace is lost.
300 It will also insert proper spacing before and after function definitions.
301 It's one line before and after inner functions and two lines before and
302 after module-level functions and classes. *Black* will not put empty
303 lines between function/class definitions and standalone comments that
304 immediately precede the given function/class.
306 *Black* will enforce single empty lines between a class-level docstring
307 and the first following field or method. This conforms to
308 [PEP 257](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/#multi-line-docstrings).
310 *Black* won't insert empty lines after function docstrings unless that
311 empty line is required due to an inner function starting immediately
317 *Black* will add trailing commas to expressions that are split
318 by comma where each element is on its own line. This includes function
321 Unnecessary trailing commas are removed if an expression fits in one
322 line. This makes it 1% more likely that your line won't exceed the
323 allotted line length limit. Moreover, in this scenario, if you added
324 another argument to your call, you'd probably fit it in the same line
325 anyway. That doesn't make diffs any larger.
327 One exception to removing trailing commas is tuple expressions with
328 just one element. In this case *Black* won't touch the single trailing
329 comma as this would unexpectedly change the underlying data type. Note
330 that this is also the case when commas are used while indexing. This is
331 a tuple in disguise: ```numpy_array[3, ]```.
333 One exception to adding trailing commas is function signatures
334 containing `*`, `*args`, or `**kwargs`. In this case a trailing comma
335 is only safe to use on Python 3.6. *Black* will detect if your file is
336 already 3.6+ only and use trailing commas in this situation. If you
337 wonder how it knows, it looks for f-strings and existing use of trailing
338 commas in function signatures that have stars in them. In other words,
339 if you'd like a trailing comma in this situation and *Black* didn't
340 recognize it was safe to do so, put it there manually and *Black* will
346 *Black* prefers double quotes (`"` and `"""`) over single quotes (`'`
347 and `'''`). It will replace the latter with the former as long as it
348 does not result in more backslash escapes than before.
350 *Black* also standardizes string prefixes, making them always lowercase.
351 On top of that, if your code is already Python 3.6+ only or it's using
352 the `unicode_literals` future import, *Black* will remove `u` from the
353 string prefix as it is meaningless in those scenarios.
355 The main reason to standardize on a single form of quotes is aesthetics.
356 Having one kind of quotes everywhere reduces reader distraction.
357 It will also enable a future version of *Black* to merge consecutive
358 string literals that ended up on the same line (see
359 [#26](https://github.com/ambv/black/issues/26) for details).
361 Why settle on double quotes? They anticipate apostrophes in English
362 text. They match the docstring standard described in [PEP 257](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/#what-is-a-docstring).
363 An empty string in double quotes (`""`) is impossible to confuse with
364 a one double-quote regardless of fonts and syntax highlighting used.
365 On top of this, double quotes for strings are consistent with C which
366 Python interacts a lot with.
368 On certain keyboard layouts like US English, typing single quotes is
369 a bit easier than double quotes. The latter requires use of the Shift
370 key. My recommendation here is to keep using whatever is faster to type
371 and let *Black* handle the transformation.
373 If you are adopting *Black* in a large project with pre-existing string
374 conventions (like the popular ["single quotes for data, double quotes for
375 human-readable strings"](https://stackoverflow.com/a/56190)), you can
376 pass `--skip-string-normalization` on the command line. This is meant as
377 an adoption helper, avoid using this for new projects.
381 *Black* standardizes most numeric literals to use lowercase letters for the
382 syntactic parts and uppercase letters for the digits themselves: `0xAB`
383 instead of `0XAB` and `1e10` instead of `1E10`. Python 2 long literals are
384 styled as `2L` instead of `2l` to avoid confusion between `l` and `1`. In
385 Python 3.6+, *Black* adds underscores to long numeric literals to aid
386 readability: `100000000` becomes `100_000_000`.
388 For regions where numerals are grouped differently (like [India](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_numbering_system)
389 and [China](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numerals#Whole_numbers)),
390 the `-N` or `--skip-numeric-underscore-normalization` command line option
391 makes *Black* preserve underscores in numeric literals.
393 ### Line breaks & binary operators
395 *Black* will break a line before a binary operator when splitting a block
396 of code over multiple lines. This is so that *Black* is compliant with the
397 recent changes in the [PEP 8](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#should-a-line-break-before-or-after-a-binary-operator)
398 style guide, which emphasizes that this approach improves readability.
400 This behaviour may raise ``W503 line break before binary operator`` warnings in
401 style guide enforcement tools like Flake8. Since ``W503`` is not PEP 8 compliant,
402 you should tell Flake8 to ignore these warnings.
407 PEP 8 [recommends](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#whitespace-in-expressions-and-statements)
408 to treat ``:`` in slices as a binary operator with the lowest priority, and to
409 leave an equal amount of space on either side, except if a parameter is omitted
410 (e.g. ``ham[1 + 1 :]``). It also states that for extended slices, both ``:``
411 operators have to have the same amount of spacing, except if a parameter is
412 omitted (``ham[1 + 1 ::]``). *Black* enforces these rules consistently.
414 This behaviour may raise ``E203 whitespace before ':'`` warnings in style guide
415 enforcement tools like Flake8. Since ``E203`` is not PEP 8 compliant, you should
416 tell Flake8 to ignore these warnings.
421 Some parentheses are optional in the Python grammar. Any expression can
422 be wrapped in a pair of parentheses to form an atom. There are a few
427 - `for (...) in (...):`
428 - `assert (...), (...)`
429 - `from X import (...)`
432 - `target: type = (...)`
433 - `some, *un, packing = (...)`
434 - `augmented += (...)`
436 In those cases, parentheses are removed when the entire statement fits
437 in one line, or if the inner expression doesn't have any delimiters to
438 further split on. If there is only a single delimiter and the expression
439 starts or ends with a bracket, the parenthesis can also be successfully
440 omitted since the existing bracket pair will organize the expression
441 neatly anyway. Otherwise, the parentheses are added.
443 Please note that *Black* does not add or remove any additional nested
444 parentheses that you might want to have for clarity or further
445 code organization. For example those parentheses are not going to be
448 return not (this or that)
449 decision = (maybe.this() and values > 0) or (maybe.that() and values < 0)
455 Some popular APIs, like ORMs, use call chaining. This API style is known
456 as a [fluent interface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluent_interface).
457 *Black* formats those by treating dots that follow a call or an indexing
458 operation like a very low priority delimiter. It's easier to show the
459 behavior than to explain it. Look at the example:
461 def example(session):
463 session.query(models.Customer.id)
465 models.Customer.account_id == account_id,
466 models.Customer.email == email_address,
468 .order_by(models.Customer.id.asc())
474 ### Typing stub files
476 PEP 484 describes the syntax for type hints in Python. One of the
477 use cases for typing is providing type annotations for modules which
478 cannot contain them directly (they might be written in C, or they might
479 be third-party, or their implementation may be overly dynamic, and so on).
481 To solve this, [stub files with the `.pyi` file
482 extension](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0484/#stub-files) can be
483 used to describe typing information for an external module. Those stub
484 files omit the implementation of classes and functions they
485 describe, instead they only contain the structure of the file (listing
486 globals, functions, and classes with their members). The recommended
487 code style for those files is more terse than PEP 8:
489 * prefer `...` on the same line as the class/function signature;
490 * avoid vertical whitespace between consecutive module-level functions,
491 names, or methods and fields within a single class;
492 * use a single blank line between top-level class definitions, or none
493 if the classes are very small.
495 *Black* enforces the above rules. There are additional guidelines for
496 formatting `.pyi` file that are not enforced yet but might be in
497 a future version of the formatter:
499 * all function bodies should be empty (contain `...` instead of the body);
500 * do not use docstrings;
501 * prefer `...` over `pass`;
502 * for arguments with a default, use `...` instead of the actual default;
503 * avoid using string literals in type annotations, stub files support
504 forward references natively (like Python 3.7 code with `from __future__
505 import annotations`);
506 * use variable annotations instead of type comments, even for stubs that
507 target older versions of Python;
508 * for arguments that default to `None`, use `Optional[]` explicitly;
509 * use `float` instead of `Union[int, float]`.
514 *Black* is able to read project-specific default values for its
515 command line options from a `pyproject.toml` file. This is
516 especially useful for specifying custom `--include` and `--exclude`
517 patterns for your project.
519 **Pro-tip**: If you're asking yourself "Do I need to configure anything?"
520 the answer is "No". *Black* is all about sensible defaults.
523 ### What on Earth is a `pyproject.toml` file?
525 [PEP 518](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0518/) defines
526 `pyproject.toml` as a configuration file to store build system
527 requirements for Python projects. With the help of tools
528 like [Poetry](https://poetry.eustace.io/) or
529 [Flit](https://flit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) it can fully replace the
530 need for `setup.py` and `setup.cfg` files.
533 ### Where *Black* looks for the file
535 By default *Black* looks for `pyproject.toml` starting from the common
536 base directory of all files and directories passed on the command line.
537 If it's not there, it looks in parent directories. It stops looking
538 when it finds the file, or a `.git` directory, or a `.hg` directory,
539 or the root of the file system, whichever comes first.
541 If you're formatting standard input, *Black* will look for configuration
542 starting from the current working directory.
544 You can also explicitly specify the path to a particular file that you
545 want with `--config`. In this situation *Black* will not look for any
548 If you're running with `--verbose`, you will see a blue message if
549 a file was found and used.
551 Please note `blackd` will not use `pyproject.toml` configuration.
554 ### Configuration format
556 As the file extension suggests, `pyproject.toml` is a [TOML](https://github.com/toml-lang/toml) file. It contains separate
557 sections for different tools. *Black* is using the `[tool.black]`
558 section. The option keys are the same as long names of options on
561 Note that you have to use single-quoted strings in TOML for regular
562 expressions. It's the equivalent of r-strings in Python. Multiline
563 strings are treated as verbose regular expressions by Black. Use `[ ]`
564 to denote a significant space character.
567 <summary>Example `pyproject.toml`</summary>
578 \.eggs # exclude a few common directories in the
579 | \.git # root of the project
589 | foo.py # also separately exclude a file named foo.py in
590 # the root of the project
598 Command-line options have defaults that you can see in `--help`.
599 A `pyproject.toml` can override those defaults. Finally, options
600 provided by the user on the command line override both.
602 *Black* will only ever use one `pyproject.toml` file during an entire
603 run. It doesn't look for multiple files, and doesn't compose
604 configuration from different levels of the file hierarchy.
607 ## Editor integration
611 Use [proofit404/blacken](https://github.com/proofit404/blacken).
622 2. Locate your `black` installation folder.
624 On macOS / Linux / BSD:
628 /usr/local/bin/black # possible location
635 %LocalAppData%\Programs\Python\Python36-32\Scripts\black.exe # possible location
638 3. Open External tools in PyCharm with `File -> Settings -> Tools -> External Tools`.
640 4. Click the + icon to add a new external tool with the following values:
642 - Description: Black is the uncompromising Python code formatter.
643 - Program: <install_location_from_step_2>
644 - Arguments: `$FilePath$`
646 5. Format the currently opened file by selecting `Tools -> External Tools -> black`.
647 - Alternatively, you can set a keyboard shortcut by navigating to `Preferences -> Keymap -> External Tools -> External Tools - Black`.
649 6. Optionally, run Black on every file save:
651 1. Make sure you have the [File Watcher](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7177-file-watchers) plugin installed.
652 2. Go to `Preferences -> Tools -> File Watchers` and click `+` to add a new watcher:
655 - Scope: Project Files
656 - Program: <install_location_from_step_2>
657 - Arguments: `$FilePath$`
658 - Output paths to refresh: `$FilePathRelativeToProjectRoot$`
659 - Working directory: `$ProjectFileDir$`
663 Commands and shortcuts:
665 * `:Black` to format the entire file (ranges not supported);
666 * `:BlackUpgrade` to upgrade *Black* inside the virtualenv;
667 * `:BlackVersion` to get the current version of *Black* inside the
671 * `g:black_fast` (defaults to `0`)
672 * `g:black_linelength` (defaults to `88`)
673 * `g:black_skip_string_normalization` (defaults to `0`)
674 * `g:black_virtualenv` (defaults to `~/.vim/black`)
676 To install with [vim-plug](https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug):
682 or with [Vundle](https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim):
688 or you can copy the plugin from [plugin/black.vim](https://github.com/ambv/black/tree/master/plugin/black.vim).
689 Let me know if this requires any changes to work with Vim 8's builtin
690 `packadd`, or Pathogen, and so on.
692 This plugin **requires Vim 7.0+ built with Python 3.6+ support**. It
693 needs Python 3.6 to be able to run *Black* inside the Vim process which
694 is much faster than calling an external command.
696 On first run, the plugin creates its own virtualenv using the right
697 Python version and automatically installs *Black*. You can upgrade it later
698 by calling `:BlackUpgrade` and restarting Vim.
700 If you need to do anything special to make your virtualenv work and
701 install *Black* (for example you want to run a version from master),
702 create a virtualenv manually and point `g:black_virtualenv` to it.
703 The plugin will use it.
705 To run *Black* on save, add the following line to `.vimrc` or `init.vim`:
708 autocmd BufWritePre *.py execute ':Black'
711 **How to get Vim with Python 3.6?**
712 On Ubuntu 17.10 Vim comes with Python 3.6 by default.
713 On macOS with Homebrew run: `brew install vim --with-python3`.
714 When building Vim from source, use:
715 `./configure --enable-python3interp=yes`. There's many guides online how
719 ### Visual Studio Code
721 Use the [Python extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.python)
722 ([instructions](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/editing#_formatting)).
727 Use [sublack plugin](https://github.com/jgirardet/sublack).
730 ### Jupyter Notebook Magic
732 Use [blackcellmagic](https://github.com/csurfer/blackcellmagic).
735 ### Python Language Server
737 If your editor supports the [Language Server Protocol](https://langserver.org/)
738 (Atom, Sublime Text, Visual Studio Code and many more), you can use
739 the [Python Language Server](https://github.com/palantir/python-language-server) with the
740 [pyls-black](https://github.com/rupert/pyls-black) plugin.
745 Use [python-black](https://atom.io/packages/python-black).
750 Other editors will require external contributions.
752 Patches welcome! ✨ 🍰 ✨
754 Any tool that can pipe code through *Black* using its stdio mode (just
755 [use `-` as the file name](https://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/special-chars.html#DASHREF2)).
756 The formatted code will be returned on stdout (unless `--check` was
757 passed). *Black* will still emit messages on stderr but that shouldn't
758 affect your use case.
760 This can be used for example with PyCharm's [File Watchers](https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/file-watchers.html).
764 `blackd` is a small HTTP server that exposes *Black*'s functionality over
765 a simple protocol. The main benefit of using it is to avoid paying the
766 cost of starting up a new *Black* process every time you want to blacken
771 `blackd` is not packaged alongside *Black* by default because it has additional
772 dependencies. You will need to do `pip install black[d]` to install it.
774 You can start the server on the default port, binding only to the local interface
775 by running `blackd`. You will see a single line mentioning the server's version,
776 and the host and port it's listening on. `blackd` will then print an access log
777 similar to most web servers on standard output, merged with any exception traces
778 caused by invalid formatting requests.
780 `blackd` provides even less options than *Black*. You can see them by running
784 Usage: blackd [OPTIONS]
787 --bind-host TEXT Address to bind the server to.
788 --bind-port INTEGER Port to listen on
789 --version Show the version and exit.
790 -h, --help Show this message and exit.
795 `blackd` only accepts `POST` requests at the `/` path. The body of the request
796 should contain the python source code to be formatted, encoded
797 according to the `charset` field in the `Content-Type` request header. If no
798 `charset` is specified, `blackd` assumes `UTF-8`.
800 There are a few HTTP headers that control how the source is formatted. These
801 correspond to command line flags for *Black*. There is one exception to this:
802 `X-Protocol-Version` which if present, should have the value `1`, otherwise the
803 request is rejected with `HTTP 501` (Not Implemented).
805 The headers controlling how code is formatted are:
807 - `X-Line-Length`: corresponds to the `--line-length` command line flag.
808 - `X-Skip-String-Normalization`: corresponds to the `--skip-string-normalization`
809 command line flag. If present and its value is not the empty string, no string
810 normalization will be performed.
811 - `X-Skip-Numeric-Underscore-Normalization`: corresponds to the
812 `--skip-numeric-underscore-normalization` command line flag.
813 - `X-Fast-Or-Safe`: if set to `fast`, `blackd` will act as *Black* does when
814 passed the `--fast` command line flag.
815 - `X-Python-Variant`: if set to `pyi`, `blackd` will act as *Black* does when
816 passed the `--pyi` command line flag. Otherwise, its value must correspond to
817 a Python version. If this value represents at least Python 3.6, `blackd` will
818 act as *Black* does when passed the `--py36` command line flag.
820 If any of these headers are set to invalid values, `blackd` returns a `HTTP 400`
821 error response, mentioning the name of the problematic header in the message body.
823 Apart from the above, `blackd` can produce the following response codes:
825 - `HTTP 204`: If the input is already well-formatted. The response body is
827 - `HTTP 200`: If formatting was needed on the input. The response body
828 contains the blackened Python code, and the `Content-Type` header is set
830 - `HTTP 400`: If the input contains a syntax error. Details of the error are
831 returned in the response body.
832 - `HTTP 500`: If there was any kind of error while trying to format the input.
833 The response body contains a textual representation of the error.
835 ## Version control integration
837 Use [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/). Once you [have it
838 installed](https://pre-commit.com/#install), add this to the
839 `.pre-commit-config.yaml` in your repository:
842 - repo: https://github.com/ambv/black
846 language_version: python3.6
848 Then run `pre-commit install` and you're ready to go.
850 Avoid using `args` in the hook. Instead, store necessary configuration
851 in `pyproject.toml` so that editors and command-line usage of Black all
852 behave consistently for your project. See *Black*'s own `pyproject.toml`
855 If you're already using Python 3.7, switch the `language_version`
856 accordingly. Finally, `stable` is a tag that is pinned to the latest
857 release on PyPI. If you'd rather run on master, this is also an option.
860 ## Ignoring unmodified files
862 *Black* remembers files it has already formatted, unless the `--diff` flag is used or
863 code is passed via standard input. This information is stored per-user. The exact
864 location of the file depends on the *Black* version and the system on which *Black*
865 is run. The file is non-portable. The standard location on common operating systems
868 * Windows: `C:\\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\black\black\Cache\<version>\cache.<line-length>.<file-mode>.pickle`
869 * macOS: `/Users/<username>/Library/Caches/black/<version>/cache.<line-length>.<file-mode>.pickle`
870 * Linux: `/home/<username>/.cache/black/<version>/cache.<line-length>.<file-mode>.pickle`
872 `file-mode` is an int flag that determines whether the file was formatted as 3.6+ only,
873 as .pyi, and whether string normalization was omitted.
878 **Dusty Phillips**, [writer](https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dusty+phillips):
880 > *Black* is opinionated so you don't have to be.
882 **Hynek Schlawack**, [creator of `attrs`](https://www.attrs.org/), core
883 developer of Twisted and CPython:
885 > An auto-formatter that doesn't suck is all I want for Xmas!
887 **Carl Meyer**, [Django](https://www.djangoproject.com/) core developer:
889 > At least the name is good.
891 **Kenneth Reitz**, creator of [`requests`](http://python-requests.org/)
892 and [`pipenv`](https://docs.pipenv.org/):
894 > This vastly improves the formatting of our code. Thanks a ton!
899 Use the badge in your project's README.md:
902 [![Code style: black](https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg)](https://github.com/ambv/black)
905 Using the badge in README.rst:
907 .. image:: https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg
908 :target: https://github.com/ambv/black
911 Looks like this: [![Code style: black](https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg)](https://github.com/ambv/black)
919 ## Contributing to *Black*
921 In terms of inspiration, *Black* is about as configurable as *gofmt*.
924 Bug reports and fixes are always welcome! However, before you suggest a
925 new feature or configuration knob, ask yourself why you want it. If it
926 enables better integration with some workflow, fixes an inconsistency,
927 speeds things up, and so on - go for it! On the other hand, if your
928 answer is "because I don't like a particular formatting" then you're not
929 ready to embrace *Black* yet. Such changes are unlikely to get accepted.
930 You can still try but prepare to be disappointed.
932 More details can be found in [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md).
939 * numeric literals are now formatted by *Black* (#452, #461, #464, #469):
941 * numeric literals are normalized to include `_` separators on Python 3.6+ code
943 * added `--skip-numeric-underscore-normalization` to disable the above behavior and
944 leave numeric underscores as they were in the input
946 * code with `_` in numeric literals is recognized as Python 3.6+
948 * most letters in numeric literals are lowercased (e.g., in `1e10`, `0x01`)
950 * hexadecimal digits are always uppercased (e.g. `0xBADC0DE`)
952 * added `blackd`, see [its documentation](#blackd) for more info (#349)
954 * adjacent string literals are now correctly split into multiple lines (#463)
956 * trailing comma is now added to single imports that don't fit on a line (#250)
958 * cache is now populated when `--check` is successful for a file which speeds up
959 consecutive checks of properly formatted unmodified files (#448)
961 * whitespace at the beginning of the file is now removed (#399)
963 * fixed mangling [pweave](http://mpastell.com/pweave/) and
964 [Spyder IDE](https://pythonhosted.org/spyder/) special comments (#532)
966 * fixed unstable formatting when unpacking big tuples (#267)
968 * fixed parsing of `__future__` imports with renames (#389)
970 * fixed scope of `# fmt: off` when directly preceding `yield` and other nodes (#385)
972 * fixed formatting of lambda expressions with default arguments (#468)
974 * fixed ``async for`` statements: *Black* no longer breaks them into separate
977 * note: the Vim plugin stopped registering ``,=`` as a default chord as it turned out
978 to be a bad idea (#415)
983 * hotfix: don't freeze when multiple comments directly precede `# fmt: off` (#371)
988 * typing stub files (`.pyi`) now have blank lines added after constants (#340)
990 * `# fmt: off` and `# fmt: on` are now much more dependable:
992 * they now work also within bracket pairs (#329)
994 * they now correctly work across function/class boundaries (#335)
996 * they now work when an indentation block starts with empty lines or misaligned
999 * made Click not fail on invalid environments; note that Click is right but the
1000 likelihood we'll need to access non-ASCII file paths when dealing with Python source
1003 * fixed improper formatting of f-strings with quotes inside interpolated
1006 * fixed unnecessary slowdown when long list literals where found in a file
1008 * fixed unnecessary slowdown on AST nodes with very many siblings
1010 * fixed cannibalizing backslashes during string normalization
1012 * fixed a crash due to symbolic links pointing outside of the project directory (#338)
1017 * added `--config` (#65)
1019 * added `-h` equivalent to `--help` (#316)
1021 * fixed improper unmodified file caching when `-S` was used
1023 * fixed extra space in string unpacking (#305)
1025 * fixed formatting of empty triple quoted strings (#313)
1027 * fixed unnecessary slowdown in comment placement calculation on lines without
1033 * hotfix: don't output human-facing information on stdout (#299)
1035 * hotfix: don't output cake emoji on non-zero return code (#300)
1040 * added `--include` and `--exclude` (#270)
1042 * added `--skip-string-normalization` (#118)
1044 * added `--verbose` (#283)
1046 * the header output in `--diff` now actually conforms to the unified diff spec
1048 * fixed long trivial assignments being wrapped in unnecessary parentheses (#273)
1050 * fixed unnecessary parentheses when a line contained multiline strings (#232)
1052 * fixed stdin handling not working correctly if an old version of Click was
1055 * *Black* now preserves line endings when formatting a file in place (#258)
1060 * added `--pyi` (#249)
1062 * added `--py36` (#249)
1064 * Python grammar pickle caches are stored with the formatting caches, making
1065 *Black* work in environments where site-packages is not user-writable (#192)
1067 * *Black* now enforces a PEP 257 empty line after a class-level docstring
1068 (and/or fields) and the first method
1070 * fixed invalid code produced when standalone comments were present in a trailer
1071 that was omitted from line splitting on a large expression (#237)
1073 * fixed optional parentheses being removed within `# fmt: off` sections (#224)
1075 * fixed invalid code produced when stars in very long imports were incorrectly
1076 wrapped in optional parentheses (#234)
1078 * fixed unstable formatting when inline comments were moved around in
1079 a trailer that was omitted from line splitting on a large expression
1082 * fixed extra empty line between a class declaration and the first
1083 method if no class docstring or fields are present (#219)
1085 * fixed extra empty line between a function signature and an inner
1086 function or inner class (#196)
1091 * call chains are now formatted according to the
1092 [fluent interfaces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluent_interface)
1095 * data structure literals (tuples, lists, dictionaries, and sets) are
1096 now also always exploded like imports when they don't fit in a single
1099 * slices are now formatted according to PEP 8 (#178)
1101 * parentheses are now also managed automatically on the right-hand side
1102 of assignments and return statements (#140)
1104 * math operators now use their respective priorities for delimiting multiline
1107 * optional parentheses are now omitted on expressions that start or end
1108 with a bracket and only contain a single operator (#177)
1110 * empty parentheses in a class definition are now removed (#145, #180)
1112 * string prefixes are now standardized to lowercase and `u` is removed
1113 on Python 3.6+ only code and Python 2.7+ code with the `unicode_literals`
1114 future import (#188, #198, #199)
1116 * typing stub files (`.pyi`) are now formatted in a style that is consistent
1117 with PEP 484 (#207, #210)
1119 * progress when reformatting many files is now reported incrementally
1121 * fixed trailers (content with brackets) being unnecessarily exploded
1122 into their own lines after a dedented closing bracket (#119)
1124 * fixed an invalid trailing comma sometimes left in imports (#185)
1126 * fixed non-deterministic formatting when multiple pairs of removable parentheses
1129 * fixed multiline strings being unnecessarily wrapped in optional
1130 parentheses in long assignments (#215)
1132 * fixed not splitting long from-imports with only a single name
1134 * fixed Python 3.6+ file discovery by also looking at function calls with
1135 unpacking. This fixed non-deterministic formatting if trailing commas
1136 where used both in function signatures with stars and function calls
1137 with stars but the former would be reformatted to a single line.
1139 * fixed crash on dealing with optional parentheses (#193)
1141 * fixed "is", "is not", "in", and "not in" not considered operators for
1144 * fixed crash when dead symlinks where encountered
1149 * don't populate the cache on `--check` (#175)
1154 * added a "cache"; files already reformatted that haven't changed on disk
1155 won't be reformatted again (#109)
1157 * `--check` and `--diff` are no longer mutually exclusive (#149)
1159 * generalized star expression handling, including double stars; this
1160 fixes multiplication making expressions "unsafe" for trailing commas (#132)
1162 * *Black* no longer enforces putting empty lines behind control flow statements
1165 * *Black* now splits imports like "Mode 3 + trailing comma" of isort (#127)
1167 * fixed comment indentation when a standalone comment closes a block (#16, #32)
1169 * fixed standalone comments receiving extra empty lines if immediately preceding
1170 a class, def, or decorator (#56, #154)
1172 * fixed `--diff` not showing entire path (#130)
1174 * fixed parsing of complex expressions after star and double stars in
1177 * fixed invalid splitting on comma in lambda arguments (#133)
1179 * fixed missing splits of ternary expressions (#141)
1184 * fixed parsing of unaligned standalone comments (#99, #112)
1186 * fixed placement of dictionary unpacking inside dictionary literals (#111)
1188 * Vim plugin now works on Windows, too
1190 * fixed unstable formatting when encountering unnecessarily escaped quotes
1196 * added `--quiet` (#78)
1198 * added automatic parentheses management (#4)
1200 * added [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com) integration (#103, #104)
1202 * fixed reporting on `--check` with multiple files (#101, #102)
1204 * fixed removing backslash escapes from raw strings (#100, #105)
1209 * added `--diff` (#87)
1211 * add line breaks before all delimiters, except in cases like commas, to
1212 better comply with PEP 8 (#73)
1214 * standardize string literals to use double quotes (almost) everywhere
1217 * fixed handling of standalone comments within nested bracketed
1218 expressions; *Black* will no longer produce super long lines or put all
1219 standalone comments at the end of the expression (#22)
1221 * fixed 18.3a4 regression: don't crash and burn on empty lines with
1222 trailing whitespace (#80)
1224 * fixed 18.3a4 regression: `# yapf: disable` usage as trailing comment
1225 would cause *Black* to not emit the rest of the file (#95)
1227 * when CTRL+C is pressed while formatting many files, *Black* no longer
1228 freaks out with a flurry of asyncio-related exceptions
1230 * only allow up to two empty lines on module level and only single empty
1231 lines within functions (#74)
1236 * `# fmt: off` and `# fmt: on` are implemented (#5)
1238 * automatic detection of deprecated Python 2 forms of print statements
1239 and exec statements in the formatted file (#49)
1241 * use proper spaces for complex expressions in default values of typed
1242 function arguments (#60)
1244 * only return exit code 1 when --check is used (#50)
1246 * don't remove single trailing commas from square bracket indexing
1249 * don't omit whitespace if the previous factor leaf wasn't a math
1252 * omit extra space in kwarg unpacking if it's the first argument (#46)
1254 * omit extra space in [Sphinx auto-attribute comments](http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/ext/autodoc.html#directive-autoattribute)
1260 * don't remove single empty lines outside of bracketed expressions
1263 * added ability to pipe formatting from stdin to stdin (#25)
1265 * restored ability to format code with legacy usage of `async` as
1268 * even better handling of numpy-style array indexing (#33, again)
1273 * changed positioning of binary operators to occur at beginning of lines
1274 instead of at the end, following [a recent change to PEP 8](https://github.com/python/peps/commit/c59c4376ad233a62ca4b3a6060c81368bd21e85b)
1277 * ignore empty bracket pairs while splitting. This avoids very weirdly
1278 looking formattings (#34, #35)
1280 * remove a trailing comma if there is a single argument to a call
1282 * if top level functions were separated by a comment, don't put four
1283 empty lines after the upper function
1285 * fixed unstable formatting of newlines with imports
1287 * fixed unintentional folding of post scriptum standalone comments
1288 into last statement if it was a simple statement (#18, #28)
1290 * fixed missing space in numpy-style array indexing (#33)
1292 * fixed spurious space after star-based unary expressions (#31)
1299 * only put trailing commas in function signatures and calls if it's
1300 safe to do so. If the file is Python 3.6+ it's always safe, otherwise
1301 only safe if there are no `*args` or `**kwargs` used in the signature
1304 * fixed invalid spacing of dots in relative imports (#6, #13)
1306 * fixed invalid splitting after comma on unpacked variables in for-loops
1309 * fixed spurious space in parenthesized set expressions (#7)
1311 * fixed spurious space after opening parentheses and in default
1312 arguments (#14, #17)
1314 * fixed spurious space after unary operators when the operand was
1315 a complex expression (#15)
1320 * first published version, Happy 🍰 Day 2018!
1324 * date-versioned (see: https://calver.org/)
1329 Glued together by [Łukasz Langa](mailto:lukasz@langa.pl).
1331 Maintained with [Carol Willing](mailto:carolcode@willingconsulting.com),
1332 [Carl Meyer](mailto:carl@oddbird.net),
1333 [Jelle Zijlstra](mailto:jelle.zijlstra@gmail.com),
1334 [Mika Naylor](mailto:mail@autophagy.io), and
1335 [Zsolt Dollenstein](mailto:zsol.zsol@gmail.com).
1337 Multiple contributions by:
1338 * [Anthony Sottile](mailto:asottile@umich.edu)
1339 * [Artem Malyshev](mailto:proofit404@gmail.com)
1340 * [Christian Heimes](mailto:christian@python.org)
1341 * [Daniel M. Capella](mailto:polycitizen@gmail.com)
1342 * [Eli Treuherz](mailto:eli@treuherz.com)
1344 * [Ivan Katanić](mailto:ivan.katanic@gmail.com)
1345 * [Jonas Obrist](mailto:ojiidotch@gmail.com)
1346 * [Luka Sterbic](mailto:luka.sterbic@gmail.com)
1347 * [Miguel Gaiowski](mailto:miggaiowski@gmail.com)
1348 * [Miroslav Shubernetskiy](mailto:miroslav@miki725.com)
1349 * [Neraste](mailto:neraste.herr10@gmail.com)
1350 * [Osaetin Daniel](mailto:osaetindaniel@gmail.com)
1351 * [Peter Bengtsson](mailto:mail@peterbe.com)
1352 * [Stavros Korokithakis](mailto:hi@stavros.io)
1353 * [Sunil Kapil](mailto:snlkapil@gmail.com)
1354 * [Vishwas B Sharma](mailto:sharma.vishwas88@gmail.com)
1355 * [Chuck Wooters](mailto:chuck.wooters@microsoft.com)