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<section id="module-pydoc">
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<span id="pydoc-documentation-generator-and-online-help-system"></span><h1><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pydoc</span></code> — Documentation generator and online help system<a class="headerlink" href="#module-pydoc" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h1>
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<p><strong>Source code:</strong> <a class="extlink-source reference external" href="https://github.com/python/cpython/tree/3.13/Lib/pydoc.py">Lib/pydoc.py</a></p>
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<p>The <code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pydoc</span></code> 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.</p>
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<p>For modules, classes, functions and methods, the displayed documentation is
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derived from the docstring (i.e. the <a class="reference internal" href="stdtypes.html#definition.__doc__" title="definition.__doc__"><code class="xref py py-attr docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__doc__</span></code></a> attribute) of the object,
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and recursively of its documentable members. If there is no docstring,
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<code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pydoc</span></code> tries to obtain a description from the block of comment lines just
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above the definition of the class, function or method in the source file, or at
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the top of the module (see <a class="reference internal" href="inspect.html#inspect.getcomments" title="inspect.getcomments"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">inspect.getcomments()</span></code></a>).</p>
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<p>The built-in function <a class="reference internal" href="functions.html#help" title="help"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">help()</span></code></a> invokes the online help system in the
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interactive interpreter, which uses <code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pydoc</span></code> 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 <strong class="program">pydoc</strong> as a script at the
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operating system’s command prompt. For example, running</p>
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<div class="highlight-python3 notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">python</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">m</span> <span class="n">pydoc</span> <span class="n">sys</span>
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</pre></div>
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<p>at a shell prompt will display documentation on the <a class="reference internal" href="sys.html#module-sys" title="sys: Access system-specific parameters and functions."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys</span></code></a> module, in a
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style similar to the manual pages shown by the Unix <strong class="program">man</strong> command. The
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argument to <strong class="program">pydoc</strong> 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 <strong class="program">pydoc</strong> 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.</p>
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<div class="admonition note">
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<p class="admonition-title">Note</p>
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<p>In order to find objects and their documentation, <code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pydoc</span></code> 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 <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">if</span> <span class="pre">__name__</span> <span class="pre">==</span> <span class="pre">'__main__':</span></code> guard to
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only execute code when a file is invoked as a script and not just imported.</p>
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<p>When printing output to the console, <strong class="program">pydoc</strong> attempts to paginate the
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output for easier reading. If either the <span class="target" id="index-1"></span><code class="xref std std-envvar docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANPAGER</span></code> or the
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<span class="target" id="index-2"></span><code class="xref std std-envvar docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PAGER</span></code> environment variable is set, <strong class="program">pydoc</strong> will use its
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value as a pagination program. When both are set, <span class="target" id="index-3"></span><code class="xref std std-envvar docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MANPAGER</span></code> is used.</p>
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<p>Specifying a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">-w</span></code> 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.</p>
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<p>Specifying a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">-k</span></code> flag before the argument will search the synopsis
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manner similar to the Unix <strong class="program">man</strong> command. The synopsis line of a
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module is the first line of its documentation string.</p>
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<p>You can also use <strong class="program">pydoc</strong> to start an HTTP server on the local machine
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that will serve documentation to visiting web browsers. <strong class="program">python -m pydoc -p 1234</strong>
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will start a HTTP server on port 1234, allowing you to browse the
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documentation at <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">http://localhost:1234/</span></code> in your preferred web browser.
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Specifying <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">0</span></code> as the port number will select an arbitrary unused port.</p>
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<p><strong class="program">python -m pydoc -n <hostname></strong> will start the server listening at the given
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hostname. By default the hostname is ‘localhost’ but if you want the server to
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be reached from other machines, you may want to change the host name that the
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server responds to. During development this is especially useful if you want
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<p><strong class="program">python -m pydoc -b</strong> 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 <em>Get</em> help on an individual item, <em>Search</em> all modules with a
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keyword in their synopsis line, and go to the <em>Module index</em>, <em>Topics</em> and
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<em>Keywords</em> pages.</p>
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<p>When <strong class="program">pydoc</strong> generates documentation, it uses the current environment
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and path to locate modules. Thus, invoking <strong class="program">pydoc spam</strong>
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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 <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">import</span> <span class="pre">spam</span></code>.</p>
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<p>Module docs for core modules are assumed to reside in
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<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">https://docs.python.org/X.Y/library/</span></code> where <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">X</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Y</span></code> 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 <code class="xref std std-envvar docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PYTHONDOCS</span></code> 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.</p>
|
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<div class="versionchanged">
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<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.2: </span>Added the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">-b</span></code> option.</p>
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<div class="versionchanged">
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<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.3: </span>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">-g</span></code> command line option was removed.</p>
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<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.4: </span><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pydoc</span></code> now uses <a class="reference internal" href="inspect.html#inspect.signature" title="inspect.signature"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">inspect.signature()</span></code></a> rather than
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<a class="reference internal" href="inspect.html#inspect.getfullargspec" title="inspect.getfullargspec"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">inspect.getfullargspec()</span></code></a> to extract signature information from
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<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.7: </span>Added the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">-n</span></code> option.</p>
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