docs/release_notes.rst

@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ Bug Fixes
 * Fixed an issue where if a first word in a docstring had Unicode characters
   and the docstring was not a unicode string, an exception would be raised
   (#258, #264).
+* Configuration files that were specified by CLI and don't contain a valid
+  section name will now issue a warning to ``stderr`` (#276, #280).
 2.0.0 - April 18th, 2017

src/pydocstyle/config.py

@@ -256,10 +256,17 @@ class ConfigurationParser(object):
                 raise IllegalConfiguration('Configuration file {!r} specified '
                                            'via --config was not found.'
                                            .format(self._run_conf.config))
+
             if None in self._cache:
                 return self._cache[None]
             options, _ = self._read_configuration_file(self._run_conf.config)
-            config = self._create_check_config(options)
+
+            if options is None:
+                log.warning('Configuration file does not contain a '
+                            'pydocstyle section. Using default configuration.')
+                config = self._create_check_config(self._options)
+            else:
+                config = self._create_check_config(options)
         # Make the CLI always win
         final_config = {}

src/tests/test_integration.py

@@ -251,6 +251,32 @@ def test_config_file(env):
     assert 'D103' not in err
+def test_sectionless_config_file(env):
+    """Test that config files without a valid section name issue a warning."""
+    with env.open('config.ini', 'wt') as conf:
+        conf.write('[pdcstl]')
+        config_path = conf.name
+
+    _, err, code = env.invoke('--config={}'.format(config_path))
+    assert code == 0
+    assert 'Configuration file does not contain a pydocstyle section' in err
+
+    with env.open('example.py', 'wt') as example:
+        example.write(textwrap.dedent("""\
+            def foo():
+                pass
+        """))
+
+    with env.open('tox.ini', 'wt') as conf:
+        conf.write('[pdcstl]\n')
+        conf.write('ignore = D100')
+
+    out, err, code = env.invoke()
+    assert code == 1
+    assert 'D100' in out
+    assert 'file does not contain a pydocstyle section' not in err
+
+
 def test_config_path(env):
     """Test that options are correctly loaded from a specific config file.