PEP 8 (legacy package)

1.7.1 · maintenance · verified Sat Apr 11

The `pep8` package, version 1.7.1, is a Python style guide checker that verifies code against some of the conventions in PEP 8. This package has been renamed to `pycodestyle` to reduce confusion between the tool and the actual PEP 8 style guide document. While still installable, users are strongly encouraged to use `pycodestyle` instead. The package is in maintenance mode under its old name, with active development continuing as `pycodestyle`.

Warnings

breaking The `pep8` package has been renamed to `pycodestyle`. While `pep8` (version 1.7.1) is still available on PyPI, it is no longer actively maintained under this name. New features and bug fixes are exclusively released in `pycodestyle`.
Fix: Migrate to `pycodestyle`. Uninstall `pep8` and install `pycodestyle`: `pip uninstall pep8 && pip install pycodestyle`. Update import statements from `pep8` to `pycodestyle` (e.g., `from pep8 import Checker` becomes `from pycodestyle import Checker`).
gotcha The `pep8` command-line tool and its programmatic interface directly print style errors to standard output. This can make it challenging to capture and process errors programmatically without redirecting output or using `pycodestyle`'s more flexible API.
Fix: For command-line usage, redirect output to a file if you need to capture it. For programmatic integration, consider using the `pycodestyle` library, which offers more options for handling reported errors, or capturing `stdout` if sticking with `pep8`.
gotcha Mixing tabs and spaces for indentation is a common PEP 8 violation that often leads to hard-to-debug `IndentationError` in Python 3. PEP 8 strongly recommends using 4 spaces per indentation level.
Fix: Configure your editor to use 4 spaces for indentation and ensure 'tabs to spaces' conversion is enabled. Use tools like `autopep8` or `black` for automatic formatting.

Install

pip install pep8 Install pep8 (legacy)
pip install pycodestyle Install pycodestyle (recommended)

Imports

Checker
```
from pep8 import Checker
```
The `pep8.Checker` class exists for direct programmatic use with the legacy `pep8` package. For new projects or updated code, use `from pycodestyle import Checker` instead.

Quickstart

The `pep8` package is primarily used via its command-line interface. For programmatic checks, you can import `Checker` and instantiate it with a file path. The `check_all()` method runs checks and prints errors directly to stdout, returning the total count of errors found. For modern usage, consider the `pycodestyle` package.

import os

# Create a dummy Python file to check
with open('example.py', 'w') as f:
    f.write('def my_function(a,b):\n    return a+ b\n')

# Command-line usage (typical)
# import subprocess
# subprocess.run(['pep8', 'example.py'])

# Programmatic usage of the legacy pep8 package
from pep8 import Checker

# You can pass a filename or a file-like object
checker = Checker('example.py')
errors = checker.check_all()

print(f"Found {errors} style errors.")
if errors > 0:
    print("Note: The pep8 package prints errors directly to stdout during check_all().")

# Cleanup (optional)
os.remove('example.py')

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