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Several of the introspection changes in Python 3.4 are indirect, where inspect module changes affected pydoc, and those in turn affected the help builtin. This update adds versionchanged notes in the key locations, as well as more coverage in the What's New document (in particular, a note in the porting section regarding the expanded domain for inspect.getfullargspec).
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91 lines
4.1 KiB
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:mod:`pydoc` --- Documentation generator and online help system
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===============================================================
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.. module:: pydoc
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:synopsis: Documentation generator and online help system.
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.. moduleauthor:: Ka-Ping Yee <ping@lfw.org>
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.. sectionauthor:: Ka-Ping Yee <ping@lfw.org>
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.. index::
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single: documentation; generation
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single: documentation; online
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single: help; online
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**Source code:** :source:`Lib/pydoc.py`
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--------------
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The :mod:`pydoc` module automatically generates documentation from Python
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modules. The documentation can be presented as pages of text on the console,
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served to a Web browser, or saved to HTML files.
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The built-in function :func:`help` invokes the online help system in the
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interactive interpreter, which uses :mod:`pydoc` to generate its documentation
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as text on the console. The same text documentation can also be viewed from
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outside the Python interpreter by running :program:`pydoc` as a script at the
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operating system's command prompt. For example, running ::
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pydoc sys
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at a shell prompt will display documentation on the :mod:`sys` module, in a
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style similar to the manual pages shown by the Unix :program:`man` command. The
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argument to :program:`pydoc` can be the name of a function, module, or package,
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or a dotted reference to a class, method, or function within a module or module
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in a package. If the argument to :program:`pydoc` looks like a path (that is,
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it contains the path separator for your operating system, such as a slash in
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Unix), and refers to an existing Python source file, then documentation is
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produced for that file.
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.. note::
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In order to find objects and their documentation, :mod:`pydoc` imports the
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module(s) to be documented. Therefore, any code on module level will be
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executed on that occasion. Use an ``if __name__ == '__main__':`` guard to
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only execute code when a file is invoked as a script and not just imported.
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Specifying a ``-w`` flag before the argument will cause HTML documentation
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to be written out to a file in the current directory, instead of displaying text
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on the console.
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Specifying a ``-k`` flag before the argument will search the synopsis
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lines of all available modules for the keyword given as the argument, again in a
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manner similar to the Unix :program:`man` command. The synopsis line of a
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module is the first line of its documentation string.
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You can also use :program:`pydoc` to start an HTTP server on the local machine
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that will serve documentation to visiting Web browsers. :program:`pydoc -p 1234`
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will start a HTTP server on port 1234, allowing you to browse the
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documentation at ``http://localhost:1234/`` in your preferred Web browser.
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Specifying ``0`` as the port number will select an arbitrary unused port.
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:program:`pydoc -g` will start the server and additionally bring up a
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small :mod:`tkinter`\ -based graphical interface to help you search for
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documentation pages. The ``-g`` option is deprecated, since the server can
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now be controlled directly from HTTP clients.
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:program:`pydoc -b` will start the server and additionally open a web
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browser to a module index page. Each served page has a navigation bar at the
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top where you can *Get* help on an individual item, *Search* all modules with a
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keyword in their synopsis line, and go to the *Module index*, *Topics* and
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*Keywords* pages.
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When :program:`pydoc` generates documentation, it uses the current environment
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and path to locate modules. Thus, invoking :program:`pydoc spam`
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documents precisely the version of the module you would get if you started the
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Python interpreter and typed ``import spam``.
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Module docs for core modules are assumed to reside in
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``http://docs.python.org/X.Y/library/`` where ``X`` and ``Y`` are the
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major and minor version numbers of the Python interpreter. This can
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be overridden by setting the :envvar:`PYTHONDOCS` environment variable
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to a different URL or to a local directory containing the Library
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Reference Manual pages.
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.. versionchanged:: 3.2
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Added the ``-b`` option, deprecated the ``-g`` option.
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.. versionchanged:: 3.4
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:mod:`pydoc` now uses :func:`inspect.signature` rather than
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:func:`inspect.getfullargspec` to extract signature information from
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callables.
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