id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
36500	inconsistent 79 char limit for docstrings and comments	Mike Edmunds	Mike Edmunds	"Django's coding style has long required [https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.2/internals/contributing/writing-code/coding-style/#python-style:~:text=We%20allow%20up%20to%2088%20characters%20as%20this%20is%20the%20line%20length%20used%20by%20black.%20This%20check%20is%20included%20when%20you%20run%20flake8.%20Documentation%2C%20comments%2C%20and%20docstrings%20should%20be%20wrapped%20at%2079%20characters%2C%20even%20though%20PEP%208%20suggests%2072. limiting docstrings and comments] to 79 characters, while allowing a larger 88-char limit for code lines. (The latter matches Black's default.)

But a large number of files in Django's source code have docstrings and block comments with lines that are between 80–88 characters long, violating this coding standard.

Currently, only the 88 char limit is enforced by pre-commit linting, via flake8. The 79 char limit is (sometimes) manually enforced during PR review.

Early versions of flake8 supported only a single `max-line-length ` limit that applied to both code and comments/docstrings. flake8 3.7.8 (2019-07-08) added a separate `max-doc-length` configuration option.

Django should either automatically enforce (via flake8 and pre-commit) this requirement or remove it so reviewers and contributors don't need to spend time cycling on line length.

[Edited to clarify discrepancy between existing coding standard and existing code.]"	Bug	new	Core (Other)	dev	Normal		flake8	David Smith	Unreviewed	1	0	0	0	0	0