[3.12] gh-109510: Clearly explain "Which Docstrings Are Examined" (GH-109696) (#111077)

Co-authored-by: Unique-Usman <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Mariatta <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Jacob Coffee <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Hugo van Kemenade <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: C.A.M. Gerlach <[email protected]>

Author: 6 people

Doc/library/doctest.rst

@@ -277,13 +277,34 @@ Which Docstrings Are Examined?
 The module docstring, and all function, class and method docstrings are
 searched.  Objects imported into the module are not searched.
 
-In addition, if ``M.__test__`` exists and "is true", it must be a dict, and each
+In addition, there are cases when you want tests to be part of a module but not part
+of the help text, which requires that the tests not be included in the docstring.
+Doctest looks for a module-level variable called ``__test__`` and uses it to locate other
+tests. If ``M.__test__`` exists and is truthy, it must be a dict, and each
 entry maps a (string) name to a function object, class object, or string.
 Function and class object docstrings found from ``M.__test__`` are searched, and
 strings are treated as if they were docstrings.  In output, a key ``K`` in
-``M.__test__`` appears with name ::
+``M.__test__`` appears with name ``M.__test__.K``.
 
-   <name of M>.__test__.K
+For example, place this block of code at the top of :file:`example.py`:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   __test__ = {
+       'numbers': """
+   >>> factorial(6)
+   720
+
+   >>> [factorial(n) for n in range(6)]
+   [1, 1, 2, 6, 24, 120]
+   """
+   }
+
+The value of ``example.__test__["numbers"]`` will be treated as a
+docstring and all the tests inside it will be run. It is
+important to note that the value can be mapped to a function,
+class object, or module; if so, :mod:`!doctest`
+searches them recursively for docstrings, which are then scanned for tests.
 
 Any classes found are recursively searched similarly, to test docstrings in
 their contained methods and nested classes.