Flake8 Broken Line

1.0.0 · active · verified Sun Apr 12

flake8-broken-line is a Flake8 plugin that enforces a coding style prohibiting the use of backslashes for line breaks in Python code. It helps maintain code readability and consistency by encouraging alternative line-breaking conventions, such as using parentheses for implicit line joining. The current version is 1.0.0, and it maintains a moderate release cadence, with updates typically focusing on Python and Flake8 compatibility.

Warnings

breaking Older versions of `flake8-broken-line` may not be compatible with newer major versions of `flake8`. For example, versions prior to 0.4.0 might not support `flake8` 4.x, and versions prior to 0.5.0 might not support `flake8` 5.x.
Fix: Always upgrade `flake8-broken-line` to its latest version (1.0.0 or newer) to ensure compatibility with recent `flake8` installations (typically `flake8 >= 5.0`). Check the project's release notes for specific compatibility matrix if issues arise.
gotcha Versions of `flake8-broken-line` prior to 0.2.1 contained a bug that caused incorrect flagging of backslashes used within triple-quoted strings (e.g., `"""docstring\ncontinuation"""`), leading to false positives.
Fix: Upgrade to `flake8-broken-line` version 0.2.1 or newer to resolve the issue of false positives when detecting backslashes within triple-quoted string literals.
gotcha There are known limitations where the plugin might not correctly handle backslashes in specific contexts, such as raw f-strings (e.g., `rf"...\n..."`) or where PEP 8 historically allowed backslashes for `with` statements. This can result in unexpected `N400` errors or missed violations.
Fix: If encountering unexpected `N400` errors or missed violations in specific scenarios (like `rf` strings), refer to the official GitHub issues page to check for known limitations or potential workarounds. You may need to use `# noqa: N400` as a temporary measure.

Install

pip install flake8-broken-line Install stable version

Imports

N/A (auto-discovered plugin)
```
No direct import statement is needed. The plugin is automatically loaded by Flake8 upon installation.
```
flake8-broken-line integrates directly into the flake8 CLI. Its checks (e.g., N400) are enabled implicitly after installation.

Quickstart

Install the plugin, create a Python file containing a backslash for line continuation, and then run `flake8` against the file to observe the `N400` error reported by the plugin.

# test_broken_line.py

message = 'This is a long string that \
           uses a backslash for line continuation.'

def my_function(arg1, \
                arg2): # This backslash is a violation
    pass

# To run this example, save the code as 'test_broken_line.py'
# and execute 'flake8 test_broken_line.py' in your terminal.
# You should see an N400 error reported.

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