Referencing long names with Python Sphinx

Wild stab in the dark. Perhaps this works:

:class:`module1.module2.module3.module4.\
module5.ReallyLongExampleClassName`

It would be valid Python

import scipy.\
stats

You can use ~ as prefix, it does exactly what you want.

http://sphinx-doc.org/markup/inline.html#xref-syntax

Another strategy is to use reST Substitutions. This will let you save more space in the text by calling the :class: cross-reference later on:

def exampleFunction():
    '''Here is an example docstring referencing another
    |ReallyLongExampleClassName|

    .. |ReallyLongExampleClassName| replace:: 
                                    :class:`.ReallyLongExampleClassName`

    '''

If you're referring to the same class in many of your files, you could instead put the substitution in your Sphinx conf.py file, using the rst_epilog setting. From the Sphinx documentation:

rst_epilog

A string of reStructuredText that will be included at the end of every source file that is read. This is the right place to add substitutions that should be available in every file. An example:

rst_epilog = """
.. |psf| replace:: Python Software Foundation
"""

New in version 0.6.

Then your docstring would just be:

def exampleFunction():
    '''Here is an example docstring referencing another
    |ReallyLongExampleClassName|

    '''

According to the sphinx documentation (https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/restructuredtext/domains.html#cross-referencing-python-objects) you could use a dot before your target class:

:class:`.ReallyLongExampleClassName`

or

:class:`.module5.ReallyLongExampleClassName`

and let sphinx search for the class:

... if the name is prefixed with a dot, and no exact match is found, the target is taken as a suffix and all object names with that suffix are searched. For example, :py:meth:.TarFile.close references the tarfile.TarFile.close() function, even if the current module is not tarfile. Since this can get ambiguous, if there is more than one possible match, you will get a warning from Sphinx.