How to document Python packages using Sphinx

Question

I am trying to document a package in Python. At the moment I have the following directory structure:

.
└── project
    ├── _build
    │   ├── doctrees
    │   └── html
    │       ├── _sources
    │       └── _static
    ├── conf.py
    ├── index.rst
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── make.bat
    ├── Makefile
    ├── mod1
    │   ├── foo.py
    │   └── __init__.py
    ├── mod2
    │   ├── bar.py
    │   └── __init__.py
    ├── _static
    └── _templates

This tree is the result of the firing of sphinx-quickstart. In conf.py I uncommented sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('.')) and I have extensions = ['sphinx.ext.autodoc'].

My index.rst is:

.. FooBar documentation master file, created by
   sphinx-quickstart on Thu Aug 28 14:22:57 2014.
   You can adapt this file completely to your liking, but it should at least
   contain the root `toctree` directive.

Welcome to FooBar's documentation!
==================================

Contents:

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

Indices and tables
==================

* :ref:`genindex`
* :ref:`modindex`
* :ref:`search`

In all the __init__.py's I have a docstring and same goes to the modules foo.py and bar.py. However, when running make html in the project I don't see any of the docstings.

You have a single top level index.rst file but nothing else. That is not enough. You need to run sphinx-apidoc to generate the needed .rst sources (or create them "by hand"). — mzjn
– mzjn, Commented Aug 28, 2014 at 13:10
Sphinx requires .rst files with directives like automodule or autoclass in order to generate API documentation. It does not extract from the sources without that. Maybe you expected Sphinx to work like Epydoc or Doxygen, but it does not. See also these answers: stackoverflow.com/a/2441159/407651, stackoverflow.com/a/6109098/407651. — mzjn
– mzjn, Commented Aug 28, 2014 at 13:28
Just wrote a complete working example with PyCharm, it can be used for inspiration. stackoverflow.com/a/46362065/1980180 — Ferhat S. R.
– Ferhat S. R., Commented Sep 25, 2017 at 10:09

mzjn · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-31 10:57:07Z

12

Here is an outline:

Document your package using docstrings in the sources.
Use sphinx-quickstart to create a Sphinx project.
Run sphinx-apidoc to generate .rst sources set up for use with autodoc. More information here.

Using this command with the -F flag also creates a complete Sphinx project. If your API changes a lot, you may need to re-run this command several times.
Build the documentation using sphinx-build.

Notes:

Sphinx requires .rst files with directives like automodule or autoclass in order to generate API documentation. It does not automatically extract anything from the Python sources without these files. This is different from how tools like Epydoc or Doxygen work. The differences are elaborated a bit more here: What is the relationship between docutils and Sphinx?.
After you have run sphinx-apidoc, it may be necessary to adjust sys.path in conf.py for autodoc to find your modules.
In order to avoid strange errors like in these questions, How should I solve the conflict of OptionParser and sphinx-build in a large project?, Is OptionParser in conflict with sphinx?, make sure that the code is properly structured, using if __name__ == "__main__": guards when needed.

edited Jan 31, 2019 at 10:57

answered Aug 28, 2014 at 18:51

mzjn

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4 Comments

tastyminerals Over a year ago

Where should I run sphinx-apidoc? What do do with generated .rst files? Where to put them? How is using -F different from spinx-quickstart?

mzjn Over a year ago

@minerals. Where should I run sphinx-apidoc? What do you mean by "where"? What is the problem? What do do with generated .rst files? Where to put them? You put them wherever is convenient. And then you run sphinx-build on them.

mzjn Over a year ago

@minerals. How is using -F different from spinx-quickstart? If you run sphinx-apidoc -F, you in effect run sphinx-quickstart and sphinx-apidoc in one go. That's just another way of doing it.

mzjn Over a year ago

@minerals. Regarding sphinx-apidoc: I linked to sphinx-doc.org/man/sphinx-apidoc.html in my answer. Is there something that is unclear on that page? Also note that if you have a stable API, it's not necessary to run sphinx-apidoc over and over again. See stackoverflow.com/q/28481471/407651.

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