docs/source/stubtest.rst

.. _stubtest:

.. program:: stubtest

Automatic stub testing (stubtest)
=================================

Stub files are files containing type annotations. See
`PEP 484 <https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0484/#stub-files>`_
for more motivation and details.

A common problem with stub files is that they tend to diverge from the
actual implementation. Mypy includes the ``stubtest`` tool that can
automatically check for discrepancies between the stubs and the
implementation at runtime.

What stubtest does and does not do
**********************************

Stubtest will import your code and introspect your code objects at runtime, for
example, by using the capabilities of the :py:mod:`inspect` module. Stubtest
will then analyse the stub files, and compare the two, pointing out things that
differ between stubs and the implementation at runtime.

It's important to be aware of the limitations of this comparison. Stubtest will
not make any attempt to statically analyse your actual code and relies only on
dynamic runtime introspection (in particular, this approach means stubtest works
well with extension modules). However, this means that stubtest has limited
visibility; for instance, it cannot tell if a return type of a function is
accurately typed in the stubs.

For clarity, here are some additional things stubtest can't do:

* Type check your code -- use ``mypy`` instead
* Generate stubs -- use ``stubgen`` or ``pyright --createstub`` instead
* Generate stubs based on running your application or test suite -- use ``monkeytype`` instead
* Apply stubs to code to produce inline types -- use ``retype`` or ``libcst`` instead

In summary, stubtest works very well for ensuring basic consistency between
stubs and implementation or to check for stub completeness. It's used to
test Python's official collection of library stubs,
`typeshed <https://github.com/python/typeshed>`_.

.. warning::

    stubtest will import and execute Python code from the packages it checks.

Example
*******

Here's a quick example of what stubtest can do:

.. code-block:: shell

    $ python3 -m pip install mypy

    $ cat library.py
    x = "hello, stubtest"

    def foo(x=None):
        print(x)

    $ cat library.pyi
    x: int

    def foo(x: int) -> None: ...

    $ python3 -m mypy.stubtest library
    error: library.foo is inconsistent, runtime argument "x" has a default value but stub argument does not
    Stub: at line 3
    def (x: builtins.int)
    Runtime: in file ~/library.py:3
    def (x=None)

    error: library.x variable differs from runtime type Literal['hello, stubtest']
    Stub: at line 1
    builtins.int
    Runtime:
    'hello, stubtest'


Usage
*****

Running stubtest can be as simple as ``stubtest module_to_check``.
Run :option:`stubtest --help` for a quick summary of options.

Stubtest must be able to import the code to be checked, so make sure that mypy
is installed in the same environment as the library to be tested. In some
cases, setting ``PYTHONPATH`` can help stubtest find the code to import.

Similarly, stubtest must be able to find the stubs to be checked. Stubtest
respects the ``MYPYPATH`` environment variable -- consider using this if you
receive a complaint along the lines of "failed to find stubs".

Note that stubtest requires mypy to be able to analyse stubs. If mypy is unable
to analyse stubs, you may get an error on the lines of "not checking stubs due
to mypy build errors". In this case, you will need to mitigate those errors
before stubtest will run. Despite potential overlap in errors here, stubtest is
not intended as a substitute for running mypy directly.

Allowlist
*********

If you wish to ignore some of stubtest's complaints, stubtest supports a
pretty handy :option:`--allowlist` system.

Let's say that you have this python module called ``ex``:

.. code-block:: python

   try:
       import optional_expensive_dep
   except ImportError:
       optional_expensive_dep = None

   first = 1
   if optional_expensive_dep:
       second = 2

Let's say that you can't install ``optional_expensive_dep`` in CI for some reason,
but you still want to include ``second: int`` in the stub file:

.. code-block:: python

    first: int
    second: int

In this case stubtest will correctly complain:

.. code-block:: shell

   error: ex.second is not present at runtime
   Stub: in file /.../ex.pyi:2
   builtins.int
   Runtime:
   MISSING

   Found 1 error (checked 1 module)

To fix this, you can add an ``allowlist`` entry:

.. code-block:: ini

   # Allowlist entries in `allowlist.txt` file:

   # Does not exist if `optional_expensive_dep` is not installed:
   ex.second

And now when running stubtest with ``--allowlist=allowlist.txt``,
no errors will be generated anymore.

Allowlists also support regular expressions,
which can be useful to ignore many similar errors at once.
They can also be useful for suppressing stubtest errors that occur sometimes,
but not on every CI run. For example, if some CI workers have
``optional_expensive_dep`` installed, stubtest might complain with this message
on those workers if you had the ``ex.second`` allowlist entry:

.. code-block:: ini

   note: unused allowlist entry ex.second
   Found 1 error (checked 1 module)

Changing ``ex.second`` to be ``(ex\.second)?`` will make this error optional,
meaning that stubtest will pass whether or not a CI runner
has``optional_expensive_dep`` installed.

CLI
***

The rest of this section documents the command line interface of stubtest.

.. option:: --concise

    Makes stubtest's output more concise, one line per error

.. option:: --ignore-missing-stub

    Ignore errors for stub missing things that are present at runtime

.. option:: --ignore-positional-only

    Ignore errors for whether an argument should or shouldn't be positional-only

.. option:: --allowlist FILE

    Use file as an allowlist. Can be passed multiple times to combine multiple
    allowlists. Allowlists can be created with :option:`--generate-allowlist`.
    Allowlists support regular expressions.

    The presence of an entry in the allowlist means stubtest will not generate
    any errors for the corresponding definition.

.. option:: --generate-allowlist

    Print an allowlist (to stdout) to be used with :option:`--allowlist`.

    When introducing stubtest to an existing project, this is an easy way to
    silence all existing errors.

.. option:: --ignore-unused-allowlist

    Ignore unused allowlist entries

    Without this option enabled, the default is for stubtest to complain if an
    allowlist entry is not necessary for stubtest to pass successfully.

    Note if an allowlist entry is a regex that matches the empty string,
    stubtest will never consider it unused. For example, to get
    ``--ignore-unused-allowlist`` behaviour for a single allowlist entry like
    ``foo.bar`` you could add an allowlist entry ``(foo\.bar)?``.
    This can be useful when an error only occurs on a specific platform.

.. option:: --mypy-config-file FILE

    Use specified mypy config *file* to determine mypy plugins and mypy path

.. option:: --custom-typeshed-dir DIR

    Use the custom typeshed in *DIR*

.. option:: --check-typeshed

    Check all stdlib modules in typeshed

.. option:: --help

    Show a help message :-)