diff --git a/refstack_client/list_parser.py b/refstack_client/list_parser.py
index 1fb9de2..ba0ebc2 100644
--- a/refstack_client/list_parser.py
+++ b/refstack_client/list_parser.py
@@ -85,10 +85,10 @@ class TestListParser(object):
         for testcase in test_list:
             if testcase.startswith("tempest"):
                 # Search for any strings like '[smoke, gate]' in the test ID.
-                match = re.search('(\[.*\])', testcase)
+                match = re.search(r'(\[.*\])', testcase)
 
                 if match:
-                    testcase = re.sub('\[.*\]', '', testcase)
+                    testcase = re.sub(r'\[.*\]', '', testcase)
                     test_mappings[testcase] = match.group(1)
                 else:
                     test_mappings[testcase] = ""
@@ -195,16 +195,16 @@ class TestListParser(object):
         """This takes in a test list file, get normalized, and get whitelist
         regexes using full qualified test names (one per line).
         Ex:
-            'tempest.test1[id-2,gate]' -> tempest.test1\[
-            'tempest.test2[id-3,smoke](scenario)' -> tempest.test2\[
-            'tempest.test3[compute,id-4]' -> tempest.test3\[
+          'tempest.test1[id-2,gate]' -> tempest.test1\[ # noqa: W605
+          'tempest.test2[id-3,smoke](scenario)' -> tempest.test2\[ # noqa: W605
+          'tempest.test3[compute,id-4]' -> tempest.test3\[ # noqa: W605
 
         :param list_location: file path or URL location of list file
         """
         normalized_list = open(self.get_normalized_test_list(list_location),
                                'r').read()
         # Keep the names
-        tests_list = [re.sub("\[", "\[", test)
-                      for test in re.findall(".*\[", normalized_list)]
+        tests_list = [re.sub(r"\[", r"\[", test)
+                      for test in re.findall(r".*\[", normalized_list)]
 
         return self._write_normalized_test_list(tests_list)
diff --git a/refstack_client/refstack_client.py b/refstack_client/refstack_client.py
index 21ffce1..fbde4e0 100755
--- a/refstack_client/refstack_client.py
+++ b/refstack_client/refstack_client.py
@@ -330,7 +330,7 @@ class RefstackClient:
                 raise requests.exceptions.HTTPError(message)
             # If a Key or Index Error was raised, one of the expected keys or
             # indices for retrieving the identity service ID was not found.
-        except (KeyError, IndexError) as e:
+        except (KeyError, IndexError):
             self.logger.warning('Unable to retrieve CPID from Keystone %s '
                                 'catalog. The catalog or the identity '
                                 'service endpoint was not '
diff --git a/refstack_client/subunit_processor.py b/refstack_client/subunit_processor.py
index 7479358..ad3e819 100644
--- a/refstack_client/subunit_processor.py
+++ b/refstack_client/subunit_processor.py
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ class TempestSubunitTestResultPassOnly(testtools.TestResult):
         # Remove any [] from the test ID before appending it.
         # Will leave in any () for now as they are the only thing discerning
         # certain test cases.
-        test_result = {'name': str(re.sub('\[.*\]', '', testcase.id()))}
+        test_result = {'name': str(re.sub(r'\[.*\]', '', testcase.id()))}
         uuid = self.get_test_uuid(str(testcase.id()))
         if uuid:
             test_result['uuid'] = uuid
diff --git a/refstack_client/tests/unit/test_list_parser.py b/refstack_client/tests/unit/test_list_parser.py
index b6b1739..a8f0606 100644
--- a/refstack_client/tests/unit/test_list_parser.py
+++ b/refstack_client/tests/unit/test_list_parser.py
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ class TestTestListParser(unittest.TestCase):
 
         expected_list = "tempest.test.one\[\n"\
                         "tempest.test.two\[\n"\
-                        "tempest.test.three\[\n"
+                        "tempest.test.three\[\n" # noqa W605
 
         tmpfile = tempfile.mktemp()
         with open(tmpfile, 'w') as f:
diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index de04df0..39b4325 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 pep8==1.4.5
-pyflakes>=0.7.2,<0.8.1
-flake8<3.6.0
+pyflakes>=0.7.2,<2.2.0
+flake8<3.8.0
 docutils>=0.11  # OSI-Approved Open Source, Public Domain
 stestr>=1.1.0 # Apache-2.0
 testtools>=0.9.34
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index f2aee1d..86311c2 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -46,7 +46,8 @@ commands = sphinx-build -b html doc/source doc/build/html
 [flake8]
 # E125 continuation line does not distinguish itself from next logical line
 # H404 multi line docstring should start with a summary
-ignore = E125,H404
+# W504 skipped because it is overeager and unnecessary
+ignore = E125,H404,W504
 show-source = true
 builtins = _
 exclude=.venv,.git,.tox,dist,doc,*lib/python*,*egg,tools,build,.tempest