autoflake

Warnings

• breaking autoflake dropped support for Python 3.8 starting from version 2.3.2. Ensure your environment uses Python 3.10 or newer.
  Fix: Upgrade your Python interpreter to version 3.10 or higher. If you must use Python 3.8, pin autoflake to `<2.3.2`.
• gotcha autoflake modifies files in-place when using the `--in-place` (or `-i`) flag in CLI. Always use it with version control to prevent accidental data loss.
  Fix: Ensure your project is under Git or another version control system. Review changes before committing them.
• gotcha autoflake requires explicit flags to remove unused imports and variables (e.g., `--remove-all-unused-imports`, `--remove-unused-variables`). Without these, it might not perform any changes.
  Fix: Always include the specific removal flags relevant to your cleanup task when running autoflake, both from CLI and programmatically.
• gotcha TOML configuration support (`--config` flag) was introduced in v2.1.0, then reverted in v2.1.1, and re-introduced in v2.3.0. Using TOML config in versions 2.1.1 through 2.2.x will not work.
  Fix: If using TOML configuration, ensure your autoflake version is 2.3.0 or newer. Otherwise, rely on CLI arguments for configuration.
• gotcha autoflake is a linter focused on removing unused code elements; it is not a code formatter like Black or yapf. It will not reformat code style.
  Fix: Combine autoflake with a separate code formatter (e.g., Black) in your pre-commit hooks or CI/CD pipeline for comprehensive code quality enforcement.

Install

• pip install autoflake Install latest version

Imports

• fix_code

  from autoflake import fix_code

  For programmatic analysis and modification of Python code strings.
• fix_file

  from autoflake import fix_file

  For programmatic analysis and modification of Python files by path.

Quickstart

The most common way to use autoflake is as a command-line tool. The quickstart shows programmatic usage with `autoflake.fix_code` and demonstrates the core flags. For CLI, `autoflake --in-place --remove-all-unused-imports --remove-unused-variables your_file.py` is typical.

import os
import autoflake

# Example file content with unused import and variable
example_code = """
import os # Unused
import sys

def my_func():
    x = 10 # Unused
    y = 20
    print(sys.version, y)
"""

# Fix the code programmatically
cleaned_code = autoflake.fix_code(
    example_code,
    remove_all_unused_imports=True,
    remove_unused_variables=True
)

print("Original code:\n" + example_code)
print("\nCleaned code:\n" + cleaned_code)

# --- CLI Usage Example (most common) ---
# Create a dummy file for CLI demonstration
dummy_file_path = "./temp_autoflake_example.py"
with open(dummy_file_path, "w") as f:
    f.write(example_code)

print(f"\nCreated dummy file: {dummy_file_path}")
print("Running autoflake via CLI (simulated):")

# Simulate CLI command, usually run from shell
# import subprocess
# subprocess.run(["autoflake", "--in-place", "--remove-all-unused-imports", "--remove-unused-variables", dummy_file_path])

# To see the effect, you'd re-read the file after running the actual CLI command
# For this example, we'll just demonstrate the programmatic result.

# Clean up the dummy file
os.remove(dummy_file_path)
print(f"Removed dummy file: {dummy_file_path}")