Script Usage and Documentation
It is critical to ensure that your scripts are documented well in order to have a well structured project. When other developers (and that could be you in a few months) will look at your scripts, they will be able to understand what these scripts are used for, how they should be used, and if any arguments or environment variables are expected.
Documenting Scripts in pyproject. toml
It is also possible to include comments in the pyproject file, so that you can include additional information if you need to provide context and usage information for your scripts.
[tool.poetry.scripts]
# Prints "Hello, world!" to the console
say_hello = "my_project.scripts:say_hello"
# Starts a simple HTTP server on port 8000
run_server = "my_project.scripts:run_server"
Providing Inline Documentation in Scripts
Add docstrings to your Python functions to describe what each script does, the arguments it accepts, and any other relevant information:
# my_project/scripts.py
def say_hello():
"""
Prints 'Hello, world!' to the console.
"""
print("Hello, world!")
def run_server():
"""
Starts a simple HTTP server on port 8000.
This server serves files from the current directory.
"""
import http.server
import socketserver
PORT = 8000
Handler = http.server.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler
with socketserver.TCPServer(("", PORT), Handler) as httpd:
print(f"Serving at port {PORT}")
httpd.serve_forever()
Creating a README File
Include a README file in your project root that provides an overview of your scripts, including how to run them and any prerequisites:
# My Project
## Scripts
### `say_hello`
Prints "Hello, world!" to the console.
```sh
poetry run say_hello
Script management with Python Poetry
Poetry is a tool that makes it easier to manage Python dependencies and packages and create virtual environments for a project, as well as to package and distribute Python libraries. Apart from dependency management, script management is also one of the strong features of Poetry where developers can define and run scripts in their projects easily. In this article, you will learn the following about how to work with scripts when using Poetry, Setting up and configuring scripts in Python projects, and using scripts with Poetry.