black/docs/usage.md
2018-03-23 14:27:04 -07:00

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# Installation and Usage
## Installation
*Black* can be installed by running `pip install black`.
## Usage
To get started right away with sensible defaults:
```
black {source_file}
```
### Command line options
Some basics about the command line help, `black --help`:
```
Usage: black [OPTIONS] [SRC]...
The uncompromising code formatter.
Options:
-l, --line-length INTEGER How many character per line to allow. [default:
88]
--check Don't write back the files, just return the
status. Return code 0 means nothing would
change. Return code 1 means some files would be
reformatted. Return code 123 means there was an
internal error.
--fast / --safe If --fast given, skip temporary sanity checks.
[default: --safe]
--version Show the version and exit.
--help Show this message and exit.
```
`Black` is a well-behaved Unix-style command-line tool:
* it does nothing if no sources are passed to it;
* it will read from standard input and write to standard output if `-`
is used as the filename;
* it only outputs messages to users on standard error;
* exits with code 0 unless an internal error occured (or `--check` was
used).
## Important note about the pre-release of Black
*Black* can already successfully format itself and the standard library.
It also sports a decent test suite. However, it is still very new.
Things will probably be wonky for a while. This is made explicit by the
"Alpha" trove classifier, as well as by the "a" in the version number.
What this means for you is that **until the formatter becomes stable,
you should expect some formatting to change in the future**.
Also, as a temporary safety measure, *Black* will check that the
reformatted code still produces a valid AST that is equivalent to the
original. This slows it down. If you're feeling confident, use
``--fast``.