From 61040c473896542d3656893550d47560cba7a000 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Dongdong Tian <seisman.info@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2026 17:59:16 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] CI: Improve the Style Checks workflow to enforce underscores
 for both files and directories

---
 .github/workflows/style_checks.yaml | 16 ++++++++++++----
 doc/contributing.md                 |  7 ++++---
 2 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/.github/workflows/style_checks.yaml b/.github/workflows/style_checks.yaml
index 8679c979e53..391a0baf3fd 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/style_checks.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/style_checks.yaml
@@ -56,13 +56,21 @@ jobs:
             exit $nfiles
           fi
 
-      - name: Ensure hyphens are not used in names of directories and Python files
+      - name: Ensure hyphens are not used in names of directories and files
         run: |
-          git ls-files '*.py' | grep '-' > output.txt || true
-          git ls-tree -rd --name-only HEAD | grep '-' >> output.txt || true
+          # Paths that allows hyphens in their names.
+          allowed=(
+            '^\.pre-commit-config\.yaml$'
+            '^\.github/release-drafter\.yml$'
+            '^\.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/[0-9]+-'
+            '^doc/_static/'
+            '^pygmt/tests/baseline/'
+            '^\.github/workflows/'
+          )
+          git ls-files | grep '-' | grep -v -E "$(IFS='|'; echo "${allowed[*]}")" > output.txt || true
           nfiles=$(wc --lines output.txt | awk '{print $1}')
           if [[ $nfiles > 0 ]]; then
-            echo "Following directories/files use hyphens in file names:"
+            echo "Following directories/files use hyphens in their names:"
             cat output.txt
             rm output.txt
             exit $nfiles
diff --git a/doc/contributing.md b/doc/contributing.md
index c2db26fe7d0..d3e91d1f29d 100644
--- a/doc/contributing.md
+++ b/doc/contributing.md
@@ -130,9 +130,10 @@ our tests. This way, the *main* branch is always stable.
     integrated separately.
   - Bug fixes should be submitted in separate PRs.
 * How to write and submit a PR
-  - Use underscores for all Python (\*.py) files as per
-    [PEP8](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/), not hyphens. Directory names
-    should also use underscores instead of hyphens.
+  - Use underscores, not hyphens, in the names of all files and directories, as per
+    [PEP8](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/) for Python (\*.py) files. A few
+    exceptions are allowed (e.g., `.pre-commit-config.yaml`) and are listed
+    in the [style checks](.github/workflows/style_checks.yaml) workflow.
   - Describe what your PR changes and *why* this is a good thing. Be as
     specific as you can. The PR description is how we keep track of the changes
     made to the project over time.