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inspect.getdoc() failing to return docstring for cached_property for subclass that overrides code but not docstring #131116
Description
Bug report
Bug description:
When a child/sub-class inherits a method from its parent/base-class, inspect.getdoc(...) returns the parent's method's docstring when the child's method does not have its own docstring. This is true even if the child overwrites the method but doesn't have a docstring as part of that.
However, this is failing when the method has the functools.cached_property decorator on it and the method is overwritten in the child. The below code errors on the assertion.
from functools import cached_property
import inspect
class Parent:
@cached_property
def foo(self):
"this is the docstring for foo"
return 1
class Child(Parent):
@cached_property
def foo(self): ...
assert inspect.getdoc(Child.foo) == inspect.getdoc(Parent.foo) # fails but we want this to be TrueI did my best to test this across a variety of similar things and this was the only case where I found the docstring to not be inherited. I tested across methods, properties (with the @property decorator), cached_properties, static_methods, and class_methods; and having the child explicitly overwrite the code (but not the docstring) of the method or not.
The below test code shows passes for all those other scenarios but only fails on test_cached_property_defined_in_parent_and_child.
from functools import cached_property
import inspect
import unittest
class TestMatchingDocstrings(unittest.TestCase):
def setUp(self):
self.parent_class = ParentClass
self.child_class = ChildClass
def compare_docstrings(self, attrname):
parent_attr = getattr(self.parent_class, attrname)
parent_docstring = inspect.getdoc(parent_attr)
child_attr = getattr(self.child_class, attrname)
child_docstring = inspect.getdoc(child_attr)
self.assertEqual(parent_docstring, child_docstring)
def test_method_defined_in_parent_only(self):
self.compare_docstrings("method_defined_in_parent_only")
def test_method_defined_in_parent_and_child(self):
self.compare_docstrings("method_defined_in_parent_and_child")
def test_property_defined_in_parent_only(self):
self.compare_docstrings("property_defined_in_parent_only")
def test_property_defined_in_parent_and_child(self):
self.compare_docstrings("property_defined_in_parent_and_child")
def test_cached_property_defined_in_parent_only(self):
self.compare_docstrings("cached_property_defined_in_parent_only")
def test_cached_property_defined_in_parent_and_child(self):
self.compare_docstrings("cached_property_defined_in_parent_and_child")
def test_static_method_defined_in_parent_only(self):
self.compare_docstrings("static_method_defined_in_parent_only")
def test_static_method_defined_in_parent_and_child(self):
self.compare_docstrings("static_method_defined_in_parent_and_child")
def test_class_method_defined_in_parent_only(self):
self.compare_docstrings("class_method_defined_in_parent_only")
def test_class_method_defined_in_parent_and_child(self):
self.compare_docstrings("class_method_defined_in_parent_and_child")
class ParentClass:
def method_defined_in_parent_only(self):
"This is a method in the parent only"
def method_defined_in_parent_and_child(self):
"This is a method in the parent and child"
@property
def property_defined_in_parent_only(self):
"This is a property with the decorator in the parent only"
@property
def property_defined_in_parent_and_child(self):
"This is a property with the decorator in the parent and child"
@cached_property
def cached_property_defined_in_parent_only(self):
"This is a cached property with the decorator in the parent only"
@cached_property
def cached_property_defined_in_parent_and_child(self):
"This is a cached property with the decorator in the parent and child"
@staticmethod
def static_method_defined_in_parent_only():
"This is a static method with the decorator in the parent only"
@staticmethod
def static_method_defined_in_parent_and_child():
"This is a static method with the decorator in the parent and child"
@classmethod
def class_method_defined_in_parent_only(cls):
"This is a class method with the decorator in the parent only"
@classmethod
def class_method_defined_in_parent_and_child(cls):
"This is a class method with the decorator in the parent and child"
class ChildClass(ParentClass):
def method_defined_in_parent_and_child(self): ...
@property
def property_defined_in_parent_and_child(self): ...
@cached_property
def cached_property_defined_in_parent_and_child(self): ...
@staticmethod
def static_method_defined_in_parent_and_child(): ...
@classmethod
def class_method_defined_in_parent_and_child(cls): ...
if __name__ == "__main__":
unittest.main()CPython versions tested on:
3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, 3.14
Operating systems tested on:
Windows
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lincolnj1 commentedon Mar 12, 2025
I'd like to work on this if no one else is. Not sure how to assign these.
sergey-miryanov commentedon Mar 12, 2025
As I understand you don't need to assign it - just do you best to work on it.
picnixz commentedon Mar 12, 2025
We don't assign issues in general. Just say that you want to work on it and we should assume that's the case. If you want to drop the task, you should just say so and others will know that the task is now "available".
scotscotmcc commentedon Mar 12, 2025
interestingly enough, pyright (or pylance? the vscode extension for python from microsoft) is able to show the correct docstring for the child cached_property
picnixz commentedon Mar 12, 2025
They may be using something else and not rely on
inspect(there are multiple ways of extracting the docstring and they may fallback to others if they can't find one maybe?)lincolnj1 commentedon Mar 12, 2025
It definitely seems like a problem in inspect. When you call inspect.getdoc(Child.foo), it goes to the _finddoc() method and follows the "ismethoddescriptor" branch, then errors on accessing Child.foo.__name__ (no such attribute).
Property has a special branch in _finddoc since it's a weird datadescriptor (and would otherwise follow that same branch and cause a similar error). Seems like cached_property needs a similar fix.
scotscotmcc commentedon Mar 12, 2025
That seems reasonable to me (note that I first looked at any of this code yesterday).
It looks like in each of those conditional groups, the goal is to get
nameandcls, and it seems like we can get them both fromobj.funcrather thanobjitself.attempted fix of issue python#131116. Test case failing on non change…
gh-131116: Fix inspect.getdoc() to work with cached_property objects (G…
pythongh-131116: Fix inspect.getdoc() to work with cached_property ob…