Sphinx meth role does not create a link

Question

In a python module, in the docstring of the module I have the following:

:meth:`my_method`

and I have the following class in the current module:

class GameP:

    ...

    def my_method(self):
        return f"{self._name} {self.selected}"

Sphinx does not create a link for that, whilst in the Sphinx documentation we have:

Normally, names in these roles are searched first without any further qualification, then with the current module name prepended, then with the current module and class name (if any) prepended. If you prefix the name with a dot, this order is reversed. For example, in the documentation of Python’s codecs127 module, :py:func:open always refers to the built-in function, while :py:func:.open refers to codecs.open().

Why does the bolded section not hold for me? :meth: role does not make a link for me.

Answer 1

The documentation is not crystal clear IMHO, but it works if you use :meth:`.my_method` (with a dot). The dot makes Sphinx look for a match for my_method anywhere.

The dot is not needed if the cross-reference is in the docstring of the GameP class. But in this case the cross-reference is in the module docstring, and on the module level there is no "current class name".