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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Docs: `filecmp.cmpfiles` parameters documented as `dir1`/`dir2` but named `a`/`b`","articleBody":"# Documentation\n\nThe documented signature of [`filecmp.cmpfiles`](https://docs.python.org/3/library/filecmp.html#filecmp.cmpfiles) names its first two parameters `dir1` and `dir2`:\n\n```rst\n.. function:: cmpfiles(dir1, dir2, common, shallow=True)\n\n   Compare the files in the two directories *dir1* and *dir2* whose names are\n   given by *common*.\n```\n\nHowever, the actual parameters are named `a` and `b` (`Lib/filecmp.py`):\n\n```python\ndef cmpfiles(a, b, common, shallow=True):\n```\n\nAs a result the documented keyword names do not work — calling `filecmp.cmpfiles(dir1=..., dir2=..., common=...)` raises `TypeError`, while `filecmp.cmpfiles(a=..., b=..., common=...)` succeeds.\n\nThe documentation should be updated to use the real parameter names `a` and `b`.\n\n\n\u003c!-- gh-linked-prs -->\n### Linked PRs\n* gh-153900\n* gh-153910\n* gh-153911\n* gh-153912\n\u003c!-- /gh-linked-prs -->\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/fedonman","@type":"Person","name":"fedonman"},"datePublished":"2026-07-18T09:52:04Z","url":"https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/153899"}