Add option to show links to error code docs (once per code) (#15449)

Fixes #7186

We can probably add some kind of redirect from mypy-lang.org, but I
think RTD link is already OK. This PR will need to wait until next
release, unless we want to use `/latest` in the link.

Author: ilevkivskyi

mypy/errors.py

@@ -20,8 +20,27 @@
 # Show error codes for some note-level messages (these usually appear alone
 # and not as a comment for a previous error-level message).
 SHOW_NOTE_CODES: Final = {codes.ANNOTATION_UNCHECKED}
+
+# Do not add notes with links to error code docs to errors with these codes.
+# We can tweak this set as we get more experience about what is helpful and what is not.
+HIDE_LINK_CODES: Final = {
+    # This is a generic error code, so it has no useful docs
+    codes.MISC,
+    # These are trivial and have some custom notes (e.g. for list being invariant)
+    codes.ASSIGNMENT,
+    codes.ARG_TYPE,
+    codes.RETURN_VALUE,
+    # Undefined name/attribute errors are self-explanatory
+    codes.ATTR_DEFINED,
+    codes.NAME_DEFINED,
+    # Overrides have a custom link to docs
+    codes.OVERRIDE,
+}
+
 allowed_duplicates: Final = ["@overload", "Got:", "Expected:"]
 
+BASE_RTD_URL: Final = "https://mypy.rtfd.io/en/stable/_refs.html#code"
+
 # Keep track of the original error code when the error code of a message is changed.
 # This is used to give notes about out-of-date "type: ignore" comments.
 original_error_codes: Final = {codes.LITERAL_REQ: codes.MISC, codes.TYPE_ABSTRACT: codes.MISC}
@@ -107,6 +126,7 @@ def __init__(
         allow_dups: bool,
         origin: tuple[str, Iterable[int]] | None = None,
         target: str | None = None,
+        priority: int = 0,
     ) -> None:
         self.import_ctx = import_ctx
         self.file = file
@@ -125,6 +145,7 @@ def __init__(
         self.allow_dups = allow_dups
         self.origin = origin or (file, [line])
         self.target = target
+        self.priority = priority
 
 
 # Type used internally to represent errors:
@@ -530,6 +551,35 @@ def add_error_info(self, info: ErrorInfo) -> None:
                 allow_dups=False,
             )
             self._add_error_info(file, note)
+        if (
+            self.options.show_error_code_links
+            and not self.options.hide_error_codes
+            and info.code is not None
+            and info.code not in HIDE_LINK_CODES
+        ):
+            message = f"See {BASE_RTD_URL}-{info.code.code} for more info"
+            if message in self.only_once_messages:
+                return
+            self.only_once_messages.add(message)
+            info = ErrorInfo(
+                import_ctx=info.import_ctx,
+                file=info.file,
+                module=info.module,
+                typ=info.type,
+                function_or_member=info.function_or_member,
+                line=info.line,
+                column=info.column,
+                end_line=info.end_line,
+                end_column=info.end_column,
+                severity="note",
+                message=message,
+                code=info.code,
+                blocker=False,
+                only_once=True,
+                allow_dups=False,
+                priority=20,
+            )
+            self._add_error_info(file, info)
 
     def has_many_errors(self) -> bool:
         if self.options.many_errors_threshold < 0:
@@ -1041,6 +1091,34 @@ def sort_messages(self, errors: list[ErrorInfo]) -> list[ErrorInfo]:
 
             # Sort the errors specific to a file according to line number and column.
             a = sorted(errors[i0:i], key=lambda x: (x.line, x.column))
+            a = self.sort_within_context(a)
+            result.extend(a)
+        return result
+
+    def sort_within_context(self, errors: list[ErrorInfo]) -> list[ErrorInfo]:
+        """For the same location decide which messages to show first/last.
+
+        Currently, we only compare within the same error code, to decide the
+        order of various additional notes.
+        """
+        result = []
+        i = 0
+        while i < len(errors):
+            i0 = i
+            # Find neighbouring errors with the same position and error code.
+            while (
+                i + 1 < len(errors)
+                and errors[i + 1].line == errors[i].line
+                and errors[i + 1].column == errors[i].column
+                and errors[i + 1].end_line == errors[i].end_line
+                and errors[i + 1].end_column == errors[i].end_column
+                and errors[i + 1].code == errors[i].code
+            ):
+                i += 1
+            i += 1
+
+            # Sort the messages specific to a given error by priority.
+            a = sorted(errors[i0:i], key=lambda x: x.priority)
             result.extend(a)
         return result
 

mypy/main.py

@@ -887,6 +887,12 @@ def add_invertible_flag(
         help="Hide error codes in error messages",
         group=error_group,
     )
+    add_invertible_flag(
+        "--show-error-code-links",
+        default=False,
+        help="Show links to error code documentation",
+        group=error_group,
+    )
     add_invertible_flag(
         "--pretty",
         default=False,

mypy/options.py

@@ -313,6 +313,7 @@ def __init__(self) -> None:
         self.show_column_numbers: bool = False
         self.show_error_end: bool = False
         self.hide_error_codes = False
+        self.show_error_code_links = False
         # Use soft word wrap and show trimmed source snippets with error location markers.
         self.pretty = False
         self.dump_graph = False

mypy_self_check.ini

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ plugins = misc/proper_plugin.py
 python_version = 3.7
 exclude = mypy/typeshed/|mypyc/test-data/|mypyc/lib-rt/
 enable_error_code = ignore-without-code,redundant-expr
+show_error_code_links = True
 
 [mypy-mypy.visitor]
 # See docstring for NodeVisitor for motivation.

test-data/unit/check-flags.test

@@ -2195,3 +2195,18 @@ cb(lambda x: a)  # OK
 
 fn = lambda x: a
 cb(fn)
+
+[case testShowErrorCodeLinks]
+# flags: --show-error-codes --show-error-code-links
+
+x: int = ""  # E: Incompatible types in assignment (expression has type "str", variable has type "int")  [assignment]
+list(1)  # E: No overload variant of "list" matches argument type "int"  [call-overload] \
+         # N: Possible overload variants: \
+         # N:     def [T] __init__(self) -> List[T] \
+         # N:     def [T] __init__(self, x: Iterable[T]) -> List[T] \
+         # N: See https://mypy.rtfd.io/en/stable/_refs.html#code-call-overload for more info
+list(2)  # E: No overload variant of "list" matches argument type "int"  [call-overload] \
+         # N: Possible overload variants: \
+         # N:     def [T] __init__(self) -> List[T] \
+         # N:     def [T] __init__(self, x: Iterable[T]) -> List[T]
+[builtins fixtures/list.pyi]