Provide more control over automatic generation of docstrings (#486)

Added the docstring_options class, which gives global control over the generation of docstrings and function signatures.

CMakeLists.txt

@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ set(PYBIND11_HEADERS
   include/pybind11/common.h
   include/pybind11/complex.h
   include/pybind11/descr.h
+  include/pybind11/options.h
   include/pybind11/eigen.h
   include/pybind11/eval.h
   include/pybind11/functional.h

docs/advanced/misc.rst

@@ -202,5 +202,28 @@ work, it is important that all lines are indented consistently, i.e.:
         ----------
     )mydelimiter");
 
+By default, pybind11 automatically generates and prepends a signature to the docstring of a function 
+registered with ``module::def()`` and ``class_::def()``. Sometimes this
+behavior is not desirable, because you want to provide your own signature or remove 
+the docstring completely to exclude the function from the Sphinx documentation.
+The class ``options`` allows you to selectively suppress auto-generated signatures:
+
+.. code-block:: cpp
+
+    PYBIND11_PLUGIN(example) {
+        py::module m("example", "pybind11 example plugin");
+
+        py::options options;
+        options.disable_function_signatures();
+        
+        m.def("add", [](int a, int b) { return a + b; }, "A function which adds two numbers");
+        
+        return m.ptr();
+    }
+
+Note that changes to the settings affect only function bindings created during the 
+lifetime of the ``options`` instance. When it goes out of scope at the end of the module's init function, 
+the default settings are restored to prevent unwanted side effects.
+
 .. [#f4] http://www.sphinx-doc.org
 .. [#f5] http://github.com/pybind/python_example

include/pybind11/options.h

@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+/*
+    pybind11/options.h: global settings that are configurable at runtime.
+
+    Copyright (c) 2016 Wenzel Jakob <wenzel.jakob@epfl.ch>
+
+    All rights reserved. Use of this source code is governed by a
+    BSD-style license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+*/
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include "common.h"
+
+NAMESPACE_BEGIN(pybind11)
+
+class options {
+public:
+
+    // Default RAII constructor, which leaves settings as they currently are.
+    options() : previous_state(global_state()) {}
+
+    // Class is non-copyable.
+    options(const options&) = delete;
+    options& operator=(const options&) = delete;
+
+    // Destructor, which restores settings that were in effect before.
+    ~options() {
+        global_state() = previous_state;
+    }
+
+    // Setter methods (affect the global state):
+
+    options& disable_user_defined_docstrings() & { global_state().show_user_defined_docstrings = false; return *this; }
+
+    options& enable_user_defined_docstrings() & { global_state().show_user_defined_docstrings = true; return *this; }
+
+    options& disable_function_signatures() & { global_state().show_function_signatures = false; return *this; }
+
+    options& enable_function_signatures() & { global_state().show_function_signatures = true; return *this; }
+
+    // Getter methods (return the global state):
+
+    static bool show_user_defined_docstrings() { return global_state().show_user_defined_docstrings; }
+
+    static bool show_function_signatures() { return global_state().show_function_signatures; }
+
+    // This type is not meant to be allocated on the heap.
+    void* operator new(size_t) = delete;
+
+private:
+
+    struct state {
+        bool show_user_defined_docstrings = true;  //< Include user-supplied texts in docstrings.
+        bool show_function_signatures = true;      //< Include auto-generated function signatures in docstrings.
+    };
+
+    static state &global_state() {
+        static state instance;
+        return instance;
+    }
+
+    state previous_state;
+};
+
+NAMESPACE_END(pybind11)

include/pybind11/pybind11.h

@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 #endif
 
 #include "attr.h"
+#include "options.h"
 
 NAMESPACE_BEGIN(pybind11)
 
@@ -306,7 +307,7 @@ protected:
         int index = 0;
         /* Create a nice pydoc rec including all signatures and
            docstrings of the functions in the overload chain */
-        if (chain) {
+        if (chain && options::show_function_signatures()) {
             // First a generic signature
             signatures += rec->name;
             signatures += "(*args, **kwargs)\n";
@@ -314,15 +315,17 @@ protected:
         }
         // Then specific overload signatures
         for (auto it = chain_start; it != nullptr; it = it->next) {
-            if (chain)
+            if (options::show_function_signatures()) {
-                signatures += std::to_string(++index) + ". ";
+                if (chain)
-            signatures += rec->name;
+                    signatures += std::to_string(++index) + ". ";
-            signatures += it->signature;
+                signatures += rec->name;
-            signatures += "\n";
+                signatures += it->signature;
-            if (it->doc && strlen(it->doc) > 0) {
                 signatures += "\n";
+            }
+            if (it->doc && strlen(it->doc) > 0 && options::show_user_defined_docstrings()) {
+                if (options::show_function_signatures()) signatures += "\n";
                 signatures += it->doc;
-                signatures += "\n";
+                if (options::show_function_signatures()) signatures += "\n";
             }
             if (it->next)
                 signatures += "\n";
@@ -532,6 +535,7 @@ public:
     PYBIND11_OBJECT_DEFAULT(module, object, PyModule_Check)
 
     explicit module(const char *name, const char *doc = nullptr) {
+        if (!options::show_user_defined_docstrings()) doc = nullptr;
 #if PY_MAJOR_VERSION >= 3
         PyModuleDef *def = new PyModuleDef();
         memset(def, 0, sizeof(PyModuleDef));
@@ -562,7 +566,7 @@ public:
         std::string full_name = std::string(PyModule_GetName(m_ptr))
             + std::string(".") + std::string(name);
         module result(PyImport_AddModule(full_name.c_str()), true);
-        if (doc)
+        if (doc && options::show_user_defined_docstrings())
             result.attr("__doc__") = pybind11::str(doc);
         attr(name) = result;
         return result;
@@ -669,7 +673,7 @@ protected:
                                               : std::string(rec->name));
 
         char *tp_doc = nullptr;
-        if (rec->doc) {
+        if (rec->doc && options::show_user_defined_docstrings()) {
             /* Allocate memory for docstring (using PyObject_MALLOC, since
                Python will free this later on) */
             size_t size = strlen(rec->doc) + 1;
@@ -1114,7 +1118,7 @@ public:
                 rec_fset->doc = strdup(rec_fset->doc);
             }
         }
-        pybind11::str doc_obj = pybind11::str(rec_fget->doc ? rec_fget->doc : "");
+        pybind11::str doc_obj = pybind11::str((rec_fget->doc && pybind11::options::show_user_defined_docstrings()) ? rec_fget->doc : "");
         object property(
             PyObject_CallFunctionObjArgs((PyObject *) &PyProperty_Type, fget.ptr() ? fget.ptr() : Py_None,
                                          fset.ptr() ? fset.ptr() : Py_None, Py_None, doc_obj.ptr(), nullptr), false);

tests/CMakeLists.txt

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ set(PYBIND11_TEST_FILES
   test_class_args.cpp
   test_constants_and_functions.cpp
   test_copy_move_policies.cpp
+  test_docstring_options.cpp
   test_eigen.cpp
   test_enum.cpp
   test_eval.cpp

tests/test_docstring_options.cpp

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+/*
+    tests/test_docstring_options.cpp -- generation of docstrings and signatures
+
+    Copyright (c) 2016 Wenzel Jakob <wenzel.jakob@epfl.ch>
+
+    All rights reserved. Use of this source code is governed by a
+    BSD-style license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+*/
+
+#include "pybind11_tests.h"
+
+struct DocstringTestFoo {
+    int value;
+    void setValue(int v) { value = v; }
+    int getValue() const { return value; }
+};
+
+test_initializer docstring_generation([](py::module &m) {
+
+    {
+        py::options options;
+        options.disable_function_signatures();
+
+        m.def("test_function1", [](int, int) {}, py::arg("a"), py::arg("b"));
+        m.def("test_function2", [](int, int) {}, py::arg("a"), py::arg("b"), "A custom docstring");
+
+        options.enable_function_signatures();
+
+        m.def("test_function3", [](int, int) {}, py::arg("a"), py::arg("b"));
+        m.def("test_function4", [](int, int) {}, py::arg("a"), py::arg("b"), "A custom docstring");
+
+        options.disable_function_signatures().disable_user_defined_docstrings();
+
+        m.def("test_function5", [](int, int) {}, py::arg("a"), py::arg("b"), "A custom docstring");
+
+        {
+            py::options nested_options;
+            nested_options.enable_user_defined_docstrings();
+            m.def("test_function6", [](int, int) {}, py::arg("a"), py::arg("b"), "A custom docstring");
+        }
+    }
+
+    m.def("test_function7", [](int, int) {}, py::arg("a"), py::arg("b"), "A custom docstring");
+
+    {
+        py::options options;
+        options.disable_user_defined_docstrings();
+
+        py::class_<DocstringTestFoo>(m, "DocstringTestFoo", "This is a class docstring")
+            .def_property("value_prop", &DocstringTestFoo::getValue, &DocstringTestFoo::setValue, "This is a property docstring")
+        ;
+    }
+});

tests/test_docstring_options.py

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+from pybind11_tests import ConstructorStats
+
+def test_docstring_options(capture):
+    from pybind11_tests import (test_function1, test_function2, test_function3,
+                                test_function4, test_function5, test_function6,
+                                test_function7, DocstringTestFoo)
+
+    # options.disable_function_signatures()
+    assert not test_function1.__doc__
+
+    assert test_function2.__doc__ == "A custom docstring"
+
+    # options.enable_function_signatures()
+    assert test_function3.__doc__ .startswith("test_function3(a: int, b: int) -> None")
+
+    assert test_function4.__doc__ .startswith("test_function4(a: int, b: int) -> None")
+    assert test_function4.__doc__ .endswith("A custom docstring\n")
+
+    # options.disable_function_signatures()
+    # options.disable_user_defined_docstrings()
+    assert not test_function5.__doc__
+
+    # nested options.enable_user_defined_docstrings()
+    assert test_function6.__doc__ == "A custom docstring"
+
+    # RAII destructor
+    assert test_function7.__doc__ .startswith("test_function7(a: int, b: int) -> None")
+    assert test_function7.__doc__ .endswith("A custom docstring\n")
+
+    # Suppression of user-defined docstrings for non-function objects
+    assert not DocstringTestFoo.__doc__
+    assert not DocstringTestFoo.value_prop.__doc__