Linting Relative Imports with flake8-import-relative-two

Linting Relative Imports with flake8-import-relative-two

If you’re a Python developer, you know how important it is to maintain code quality and adhere to best practices. One area that often requires attention is the use of relative imports. Relative imports can make code harder to understand and maintain, especially when they go too deep into the directory structure. That’s where the flake8-import-relative-two plugin comes in.

The flake8-import-relative-two plugin is a powerful linter that checks for relative imports up to a maximum of level two. It helps ensure that your code follows the rule of not having relative imports deeper than two levels, which should be converted to absolute imports.

This plugin is based on the flake8-absolute-import plugin by Brian Skinn, and it uses a direct check of the AST for each from ... import statement to flag relative imports deeper than two levels. When such imports are detected, the plugin raises the “IRT1” error code, making it easy for you to identify and fix these issues in your code.

To start using flake8-import-relative-two, simply install it from PyPI using pip:

shell
pip install flake8-import-relative-two

Once installed, flake8 should automatically detect and load the plugin. You can run it as usual and expect to see any relative imports deeper than two levels highlighted as errors.

It’s worth mentioning that flake8-import-relative-two requires flake8 version 6.0 or higher, so make sure you have the appropriate version installed.

If you encounter any bugs or have feature requests, you can submit them on the plugin’s Issues page on GitHub. The developer, Bartosz Cholewa, encourages community feedback and is actively maintaining the plugin.

In conclusion, flake8-import-relative-two is an essential tool for Python developers who want to enforce code quality standards and avoid deep relative imports. By using this plugin, you can ensure that your codebase follows best practices, making it easier to understand, maintain, and share with others.

References:
– flake8-import-relative-two on PyPI
– flake8-import-relative-two on GitHub

License:
The flake8-import-relative-two documentation, including docstrings and README, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY). The codebase is released under the MIT License.