Running mypy and managing imports¶
The Getting started page should have already introduced you to the basics of how to run mypy – pass in the files and directories you want to type check via the command line:
$ mypy foo.py bar.py some_directory
This page discusses in more detail how exactly to specify what files you want mypy to type check, how mypy discovers imported modules, and recommendations on how to handle any issues you may encounter along the way.
If you are interested in learning about how to configure the actual way mypy type checks your code, see our The mypy command line guide.
Specifying code to be checked¶
Mypy lets you specify what files it should type check in several different ways.
First, you can pass in paths to Python files and directories you want to type check. For example:
$ mypy file_1.py foo/file_2.py file_3.pyi some/directory
The above command tells mypy it should type check all of the provided files together. In addition, mypy will recursively type check the entire contents of any provided directories.
For more details about how exactly this is done, see Mapping file paths to modules.
Second, you can use the
-m
flag (long form:--module
) to specify a module name to be type checked. The name of a module is identical to the name you would use to import that module within a Python program. For example, running:$ mypy -m html.parser
…will type check the module
html.parser
(this happens to be a library stub).Mypy will use an algorithm very similar to the one Python uses to find where modules and imports are located on the file system. For more details, see How imports are found.
Third, you can use the
-p
(long form:--package
) flag to specify a package to be (recursively) type checked. This flag is almost identical to the-m
flag except that if you give it a package name, mypy will recursively type check all submodules and subpackages of that package. For example, running:$ mypy -p html
…will type check the entire
html
package (of library stubs). In contrast, if we had used the-m
flag, mypy would have type checked justhtml
’s__init__.py
file and anything imported from there.Note that we can specify multiple packages and modules on the command line. For example:
$ mypy --package p.a --package p.b --module c
Fourth, you can also instruct mypy to directly type check small strings as programs by using the
-c
(long form:--command
) flag. For example:$ mypy -c 'x = [1, 2]; print(x())'
…will type check the above string as a mini-program (and in this case, will report that
List[int]
is not callable).
Reading a list of files from a file¶
Finally, any command-line argument starting with @
reads additional
command-line arguments from the file following the @
character.
This is primarily useful if you have a file containing a list of files
that you want to be type-checked: instead of using shell syntax like:
$ mypy $(cat file_of_files.txt)
you can use this instead:
$ mypy @file_of_files.txt
This file can technically also contain any command line flag, not just file paths. However, if you want to configure many different flags, the recommended approach is to use a configuration file instead.
How mypy handles imports¶
When mypy encounters an import
statement, it will first
attempt to locate that module
or type stubs for that module in the file system. Mypy will then
type check the imported module. There are three different outcomes
of this process:
Mypy is unable to follow the import: the module either does not exist, or is a third party library that does not use type hints.
Mypy is able to follow and type check the import, but you did not want mypy to type check that module at all.
Mypy is able to successfully both follow and type check the module, and you want mypy to type check that module.
The third outcome is what mypy will do in the ideal case. The following sections will discuss what to do in the other two cases.
Missing imports¶
When you import a module, mypy may report that it is unable to follow the import.
This can cause errors that look like the following:
main.py:1: error: No library stub file for standard library module 'antigravity'
main.py:2: error: Skipping analyzing 'django': found module but no type hints or library stubs
main.py:3: error: Cannot find implementation or library stub for module named 'this_module_does_not_exist'
If you get any of these errors on an import, mypy will assume the type of that
module is Any
, the dynamic type. This means attempting to access any
attribute of the module will automatically succeed:
# Error: Cannot find implementation or library stub for module named 'does_not_exist'
import does_not_exist
# But this type checks, and x will have type 'Any'
x = does_not_exist.foobar()
The next three sections describe what each error means and recommended next steps.
Missing type hints for standard library module¶
If you are getting a “No library stub file for standard library module” error, this means that you are attempting to import something from the standard library which has not yet been annotated with type hints. In this case, try:
Updating mypy and re-running it. It’s possible type hints for that corner of the standard library were added in a newer version of mypy.
Filing a bug report or submitting a pull request to typeshed, the repository of type hints for the standard library that comes bundled with mypy.
Changes to typeshed will come bundled with mypy the next time it’s released. In the meantime, you can add a
# type: ignore
to the import to suppress the errors generated on that line. After upgrading, run mypy with the--warn-unused-ignores
flag to help you find any# type: ignore
annotations you no longer need.
Missing type hints for third party library¶
If you are getting a “Skipping analyzing X: found module but no type hints or library stubs”, error, this means mypy was able to find the module you were importing, but no corresponding type hints.
Mypy will not try inferring the types of any 3rd party libraries you have installed unless they either have declared themselves to be PEP 561 compliant stub package or have registered themselves on typeshed, the repository of types for the standard library and some 3rd party libraries.
If you are getting this error, try:
Upgrading the version of the library you’re using, in case a newer version has started to include type hints.
Searching to see if there is a PEP 561 compliant stub package. corresponding to your third party library. Stub packages let you install type hints independently from the library itself.
For example, if you want type hints for the
django
library, you can install the django-stubs package.Writing your own stub files containing type hints for the library. You can point mypy at your type hints either by passing them in via the command line, by using the
files
ormypy_path
config file options, or by adding the location to theMYPYPATH
environment variable.These stub files do not need to be complete! A good strategy is to use stubgen, a program that comes bundled with mypy, to generate a first rough draft of the stubs. You can then iterate on just the parts of the library you need.
If you want to share your work, you can try contributing your stubs back to the library – see our documentation on creating PEP 561 compliant packages.
If you are unable to find any existing type hints nor have time to write your
own, you can instead suppress the errors. All this will do is make mypy stop
reporting an error on the line containing the import: the imported module
will continue to be of type Any
.
To suppress a single missing import error, add a
# type: ignore
at the end of the line containing the import.To suppress all missing import imports errors from a single library, add a section to your mypy config file for that library setting
ignore_missing_imports
to True. For example, suppose your codebase makes heavy use of an (untyped) library namedfoobar
. You can silence all import errors associated with that library and that library alone by adding the following section to your config file:[mypy-foobar.*] ignore_missing_imports = True
Note: this option is equivalent to adding a
# type: ignore
to every import offoobar
in your codebase. For more information, see the documentation about configuring import discovery in config files. The.*
afterfoobar
will ignore imports offoobar
modules and subpackages in addition to thefoobar
top-level package namespace.To suppress all missing import errors for all libraries in your codebase, invoke mypy with the
--ignore-missing-imports
command line flag or set theignore_missing_imports
config file option to True in the global section of your mypy config file:[mypy] ignore_missing_imports = True
We recommend using this approach only as a last resort: it’s equivalent to adding a
# type: ignore
to all unresolved imports in your codebase.
Unable to find module¶
If you are getting a “Cannot find implementation or library stub for module” error, this means mypy was not able to find the module you are trying to import, whether it comes bundled with type hints or not. If you are getting this error, try:
Making sure your import does not contain a typo.
If the module is a third party library, making sure that mypy is able to find the interpreter containing the installed library.
For example, if you are running your code in a virtualenv, make sure to install and use mypy within the virtualenv. Alternatively, if you want to use a globally installed mypy, set the
--python-executable
command line flag to point the Python interpreter containing your installed third party packages.
Reading the How imports are found section below to make sure you understand how exactly mypy searches for and finds modules and modify how you’re invoking mypy accordingly.
Directly specifying the directory containing the module you want to type check from the command line, by using the
files
ormypy_path
config file options, or by using theMYPYPATH
environment variable.Note: if the module you are trying to import is actually a submodule of some package, you should specific the directory containing the entire package. For example, suppose you are trying to add the module
foo.bar.baz
which is located at~/foo-project/src/foo/bar/baz.py
. In this case, you must runmypy ~/foo-project/src
(or set theMYPYPATH
to~/foo-project/src
.If you are using namespace packages – packages which do not contain
__init__.py
files within each subfolder – using the--namespace-packages
command line flag.
In some rare cases, you may get the “Cannot find implementation or library stub for module” error even when the module is installed in your system. This can happen when the module is both missing type hints and is installed on your system in a unconventional way.
In this case, follow the steps above on how to handle missing type hints in third party libraries.
Following imports¶
Mypy is designed to doggedly follow all imports, even if the imported module is not a file you explicitly wanted mypy to check.
For example, suppose we have two modules mycode.foo
and mycode.bar
:
the former has type hints and the latter does not. We run
mypy -m mycode.foo
and mypy discovers that mycode.foo
imports
mycode.bar
.
How do we want mypy to type check mycode.bar
? We can configure the
desired behavior by using the --follow-imports
flag. This flag
accepts one of four string values:
normal
(the default) follows all imports normally and type checks all top level code (as well as the bodies of all functions and methods with at least one type annotation in the signature).silent
behaves in the same way asnormal
but will additionally suppress any error messages.skip
will not follow imports and instead will silently replace the module (and anything imported from it) with an object of typeAny
.error
behaves in the same way asskip
but is not quite as silent – it will flag the import as an error, like this:main.py:1: note: Import of 'mycode.bar' ignored main.py:1: note: (Using --follow-imports=error, module not passed on command line)
If you are starting a new codebase and plan on using type hints from
the start, we recommend you use either --follow-imports=normal
(the default) or --follow-imports=error
. Either option will help
make sure you are not skipping checking any part of your codebase by
accident.
If you are planning on adding type hints to a large, existing code base,
we recommend you start by trying to make your entire codebase (including
files that do not use type hints) pass under --follow-imports=normal
.
This is usually not too difficult to do: mypy is designed to report as
few error messages as possible when it is looking at unannotated code.
If doing this is intractable, we recommend passing mypy just the files
you want to type check and use --follow-imports=silent
. Even if
mypy is unable to perfectly type check a file, it can still glean some
useful information by parsing it (for example, understanding what methods
a given object has). See Using mypy with an existing codebase for more recommendations.
We do not recommend using skip
unless you know what you are doing:
while this option can be quite powerful, it can also cause many
hard-to-debug errors.
Mapping file paths to modules¶
One of the main ways you can tell mypy what files to type check is by providing mypy the paths to those files. For example:
$ mypy file_1.py foo/file_2.py file_3.pyi some/directory
This section describes how exactly mypy maps the provided paths to modules to type check.
Files ending in
.py
(and stub files ending in.pyi
) are checked as Python modules.Files not ending in
.py
or.pyi
are assumed to be Python scripts and checked as such.Directories representing Python packages (i.e. containing a
__init__.py[i]
file) are checked as Python packages; all submodules and subpackages will be checked (subpackages must themselves have a__init__.py[i]
file).Directories that don’t represent Python packages (i.e. not directly containing an
__init__.py[i]
file) are checked as follows:All
*.py[i]
files contained directly therein are checked as toplevel Python modules;All packages contained directly therein (i.e. immediate subdirectories with an
__init__.py[i]
file) are checked as toplevel Python packages.
One more thing about checking modules and packages: if the directory
containing a module or package specified on the command line has an
__init__.py[i]
file, mypy assigns these an absolute module name by
crawling up the path until no __init__.py[i]
file is found.
For example, suppose we run the command mypy foo/bar/baz.py
where
foo/bar/__init__.py
exists but foo/__init__.py
does not. Then
the module name assumed is bar.baz
and the directory foo
is
added to mypy’s module search path.
On the other hand, if foo/bar/__init__.py
did not exist, foo/bar
would be added to the module search path instead, and the module name
assumed is just baz
.
If a script (a file not ending in .py[i]
) is processed, the module
name assumed is __main__
(matching the behavior of the
Python interpreter), unless --scripts-are-modules
is passed.
How imports are found¶
When mypy encounters an import
statement or receives module
names from the command line via the --module
or --package
flags, mypy tries to find the module on the file system similar
to the way Python finds it. However, there are some differences.
First, mypy has its own search path. This is computed from the following items:
The
MYPYPATH
environment variable (a colon-separated list of directories).The
mypy_path
config file option.The directories containing the sources given on the command line (see below).
The installed packages marked as safe for type checking (see PEP 561 support)
The relevant directories of the typeshed repo.
Note
You cannot point to a PEP 561 package via the MYPYPATH
, it must be
installed (see PEP 561 support)
For sources given on the command line, the path is adjusted by crawling
up from the given file or package to the nearest directory that does not
contain an __init__.py
or __init__.pyi
file. If the given path
is relative, it will only crawl as far as the current working directory.
Second, mypy searches for stub files in addition to regular Python files
and packages.
The rules for searching for a module foo
are as follows:
The search looks in each of the directories in the search path (see above) until a match is found.
If a package named
foo
is found (i.e. a directoryfoo
containing an__init__.py
or__init__.pyi
file) that’s a match.If a stub file named
foo.pyi
is found, that’s a match.If a Python module named
foo.py
is found, that’s a match.
These matches are tried in order, so that if multiple matches are found in the same directory on the search path (e.g. a package and a Python file, or a stub file and a Python file) the first one in the above list wins.
In particular, if a Python file and a stub file are both present in the same directory on the search path, only the stub file is used. (However, if the files are in different directories, the one found in the earlier directory is used.)
Other advice and best practices¶
There are multiple ways of telling mypy what files to type check, ranging
from passing in command line arguments to using the files
or mypy_path
config file options to setting the
MYPYPATH
environment variable.
However, in practice, it is usually sufficient to just use either
command line arguments or the files
config file option (the two
are largely interchangeable).
Setting mypy_path
/MYPYPATH
is mostly useful in the case
where you want to try running mypy against multiple distinct
sets of files that happen to share some common dependencies.
For example, if you have multiple projects that happen to be
using the same set of work-in-progress stubs, it could be
convenient to just have your MYPYPATH
point to a single
directory containing the stubs.