I use the following code to parse argument to my script (simplified version):
import argparse
ap = argparse.ArgumentParser()
ap.add_argument("-l", "--library", required=True)
ap.add_argument("--csv2fasta", required=False)
args = vars(ap.parse_args())
For every way the script can be run, the -l/--library flag should be required (required=True), but is there a way that it can use the setting required=False when you only use the --csv2fasta flag?
You have to write your test after parsing arguments, here's what I do for such cases:
def parse_args():
ap = argparse.ArgumentParser()
ap.add_argument("-l", "--library")
ap.add_argument("--csv2fasta")
args = ap.parse_args()
if not args.library and not args.csv2fasta:
ap.error("--library is required unless you provide --csv2fasta argument")
return args
$ python3 test-args.py
usage: test-args.py [-h] [-l LIBRARY] [--csv2fasta CSV2FASTA]
test-args.py: error: --library is required unless you provide --csv2fasta argument
$ python3 test-args.py --csv2fasta value
Related
I have the following
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='macc', usage='macc [options] [address]')
parser.add_argument('-l', '--list', help='Lists MAC Addresses')
args = parser.parse_args()
print(args)
def list_macs():
print("Found the following MAC Addresses")
I get an error when running with python macc.py -l it says that an argument was expected. Even when I change my code to parser.add_argument('-l', '--list', help='Lists MAC Addresses' default=1) I get the same error.
The default action for an argument is store, which sets the value of the attribute in the namespace returned by parser.parse_args using the next command line argument.
You don't want to store any particular value; you just want to acknowledge that -l was used. A quick hack would be to use the store_true action (which would set args.list to True).
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='macc')
parser.add_argument('-l', '--list', action='store_true', help='Lists MAC Addresses')
args = parser.parse_args()
if args.list:
list_macs()
The store_true action implies type=bool and default=False as well.
However, a slightly cleaner approach would be to define a subcommand named list. With this approach, your invocation would be macc.py list rather than macc.py --list.
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='macc')
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(dest='cmd_name')
subparsers.add_parser('list')
args = parser.parse_args()
if args.cmd_name == "list":
list_macs()
If you use the argument -l on the cli you need to specify an argument, like:
python macc.py -l something
If you set default = 1 on the -l argument you can run your script without using it like this:
python macc.py
I have the following code:
# Get parsed arguments
args = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=Messages().Get(112))
# Get the arguments for sinit
args.add_argument('init', help=Messages().Get(100), action="store_true")
args.add_argument('--url', default=None, help=Messages().Get(101))
# Get the arguments for schema import
args.add_argument('schema-import', help=Messages().Get(104), action="store_true")
args.add_argument('--file', default=None, help=Messages().Get(104))
The --url argument should only be used with init. For example: script.py schema-import --url should not be accepted but script.py schema-import --file should.
How to set arguments as child arguments?
As mentioned there might be a way to do this with argparse, I'm not sure, but in any event I find it more transparent to explicitly handle argument dependencies in application logic. This should achieve what I think you want:
import argparse
import sys
args = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="please only use the '--url' argument if you also use the 'init' argument")
# Going to use aliases here it's more conventional. So user can use, eg,
# -i or --init for the first argument.
args.add_argument('-i', '--init', help='init help', action="store_true")
args.add_argument('-u', '--url', default=None, help='init help')
args.add_argument('-s', '--schema-import', help='schema-import help', action="store_true")
args.add_argument('-f', '--file', help='file help')
def main():
arguments = args.parse_args()
if arguments.url and not arguments.init:
# You can log an output or raise an exception if you want
# But most likely a print statment is most appropriate
# Since you are interacting with the CLI.
print("You can only use the URL option with init. Exiting")
sys.exit(0)
print("gaurd clauses passed. Here is my code...")
...
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
Test results (my file called temp.py):
$python temp.py -u https://www.google.com
You can only use the URL option with init. Exiting
$
$python temp.py -i -u https://www.google.com
Gaurd clauses passed. Here is my code...
Why bother with doing all the logic when you can let argparse do all the work for you?
Simply use Sub-commands to define different "branches" of execution:
args = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=Messages().Get(112))
subparsers = args.add_subparsers()
parser_init = subparsers.add_parser('init', help=Messages().Get(100))
parser_init.add_argument('--url', default=None, help=Messages().Get(101))
parser_schema = subparsers.add_parser('schema-import', help=Messages().Get(104))
parser_schema.add_argument('--file', default=None, help=Messages().Get(104))
And this will give you what you want without any logic added:
>>> print(args.parse_args(['schema-import', '--url', "some.url"]))
usage: args.py [-h] {init,schema-import} ...
args.py: error: unrecognized arguments: --url some.url
>>> print(args.parse_args(['schema-import', '--file', "some.file"]))
Namespace(file='some.file')
I am trying to use argparse to accept required command line options. I have defined a function like so
def get_args():
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Help Desk Calendar Tool')
parser.add_argument('-s', '--start', type=str, required=True, metavar='YYYY-MM-DD')
parser.add_argument('-e','--end', type=str, required=True, metavar='YYYY-MM-DD')
parser.add_argument('-m','--mode', type=str, required=True , metavar='add|del')
args = parser.parse_args()
start = args.start
end = args.end
mode = args.mode
return start,end,mode
What I am trying to do is for the option --mode I would like it to ONLY accept an parameter of either add or del. I could do this from an if statement but was wondering if argparse has a built in way of accomplishing this task. I looked at nargs but wasn't too clear if that's the path I need to go down
I think you are asking about choices:
parser.add_argument('-m','--mode', type=str, required=True, choices=['add', 'del'])
Demo:
$ python test.py -s 10 -e 20 -m invalid
usage: test.py [-h] -m {add,del}
test.py: error: argument -m/--mode: invalid choice: 'invalid' (choose from 'add', 'del')
Basic intended usage:
my_framework create Project_title /path/to/project
OR
my_framework create Project_title (ie. use current working directory)
OR
my_framework update (ie. update my_framework rather than creating a new project)
I know I can make name optional by providing it with a default, but, in reality name is not optional provided the user has entered create as the first argument.
Best solution I've come up with is to use a default value for name and then, if the argument name equals its default value, throw an error. But if there's a way to make argparse do this work for me I'd rather learn to do it.
Writing two scripts, my_framework_create and my_framework_update doesn't appeal to me aesthetically.
#!/usr/bin/env python
import argparse
import os
import shutil
from subprocess import call
template_path = "/usr/local/klibs/template"
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser("MY_FRAMEWORK CLI", description='Creates a new MY_FRAMEWORK project or updates MY_FRAMEWORK')
parser.add_argument('action', choices=['create', 'update'], type=str, help='<help text>')
parser.add_argument('name', type=str, help='<help text>')
parser.add_argument('path', default=os.getcwd(), nargs="?", type=str, help='<help text>')
args = parser.parse_args()
if args.action == "create":
# do the create stuff
if args.action == "update":
# do the update stuff
The best way to do this is with a subparser
An example from the docs:
>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(title='subcommands',
... description='valid subcommands',
... help='additional help')
>>> subparsers.add_parser('foo')
>>> subparsers.add_parser('bar')
>>> parser.parse_args(['-h'])
usage: [-h] {foo,bar} ...
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
subcommands:
valid subcommands
{foo,bar} additional help
In your case you would have create and update as separate subparsers.
Example:
def create(args):
# do the create stuff
print(args)
def update(args):
# do the update stuff
print(args)
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(title='subcommands',
description='valid subcommands',
help='additional help')
create_parser = subparsers.add_parser('create')
create_parser.add_argument('name', type=str)
create_parser.set_defaults(func=create)
update_parser = subparsers.add_parser('update')
update_parser.set_defaults(func=update)
With python's argparse, how do I make a subcommand a required argument? I want to do this because I want argparse to error out if a subcommand is not specified. I override the error method to print help instead. I have 3-deep nested subcommands, so it's not a matter of simply handling zero arguments at the top level.
In the following example, if this is called like so, I get:
$./simple.py
$
What I want it to do instead is for argparse to complain that the required subcommand was not specified:
import argparse
class MyArgumentParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
def error(self, message):
self.print_help(sys.stderr)
self.exit(0, '%s: error: %s\n' % (self.prog, message))
def main():
parser = MyArgumentParser(description='Simple example')
subs = parser.add_subparsers()
sub_one = subs.add_parser('one', help='does something')
sub_two = subs.add_parser('two', help='does something else')
parser.parse_args()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
There was a change in 3.3 in the error message for required arguments, and subcommands got lost in the dust.
http://bugs.python.org/issue9253#msg186387
There I suggest this work around, setting the required attribute after the subparsers is defined.
parser = ArgumentParser(prog='test')
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers()
subparsers.required = True
subparsers.dest = 'command'
subparser = subparsers.add_parser("foo", help="run foo")
parser.parse_args()
update
A related pull-request: https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/3027
In addition to hpaulj's answer: you can also use the required keyword argument with ArgumentParser.add_subparsers() since Python 3.7. You also need to pass dest as argument. Otherwise you will get an error: TypeError: sequence item 0: expected str instance, NoneType found.
Example file example.py:
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(dest='command', required=True)
foo_parser = subparsers.add_parser("foo", help="command foo")
args = parser.parse_args()
Output of the call without an argument:
$ python example.py
usage: example.py [-h] {foo} ...
example.py: error: the following arguments are required: command
How about using required=True? More info here.
You can use the dest argument, which is documented in the last example in the documentation for add_subparsers():
# required_subparser.py
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(dest='subparser_name')
one = subparsers.add_parser('one')
two = subparsers.add_parser('two')
args = parser.parse_args()
Running with Python 2.7:
$python required_subparser.py
usage: required_subparser.py [-h] {one,two} ...
required_subparser.py: error: too few arguments
$python required_subparser.py one
$# no error