Python Get Docstring Without Going into Interactive Mode

Question

I want to grab the docstring in my commandline application, but every time I call the builtin help() function, Python goes into interactive mode.

How do I get the docstring of an object and not have Python grab focus?

Answer 1

Any docstring is available through the .__doc__ property:

>>> print str.__doc__

In python 3, you'll need parenthesis for printing:

>>> print(str.__doc__)

Answer 2

You can use dir({insert class name here}) to get the contents of a class and then iterate over it, looking for methods or other stuff. This example looks in a class Taskfor methods starting with the name cmd and gets their docstring:

command_help = dict()

for key in dir( Task ):
    if key.startswith( 'cmd' ):
        command_help[ key ] = getattr( Task, key ).__doc__