""" doc_inherit decorator Usage: class Foo(object): def foo(self): "Frobber" pass class Bar(Foo): @doc_inherit def foo(self): pass Now, Bar.foo.__doc__ == Bar().foo.__doc__ == Foo.foo.__doc__ == "Frobber" See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2025562/inherit-docstrings-in-python-class-inheritance """ from functools import wraps class DocInherit(object): """ Docstring inheriting method descriptor The class itself is also used as a decorator """ def __init__(self, mthd): self.mthd = mthd self.name = mthd.__name__ def __get__(self, obj, cls): if obj: return self.get_with_inst(obj, cls) else: return self.get_no_inst(cls) def get_with_inst(self, obj, cls): overridden = getattr(super(cls, obj), self.name, None) @wraps(self.mthd, assigned=('__name__', '__module__')) def f(*args, **kwargs): return self.mthd(obj, *args, **kwargs) return self.use_parent_doc(f, overridden) def get_no_inst(self, cls): for parent in cls.__mro__[1:]: overridden = getattr(parent, self.name, None) if overridden: break @wraps(self.mthd, assigned=('__name__', '__module__')) def f(*args, **kwargs): return self.mthd(*args, **kwargs) return self.use_parent_doc(f, overridden) def use_parent_doc(self, func, source): if source is None: raise NameError, ("Can't find '%s' in parents" % self.name) func.__doc__ = source.__doc__ return func doc_inherit = DocInherit