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 have a file called simple_example.py, which consists of 2 functions:
# import the necessary packages
import argparse
class simple:
#staticmethod
def func1():
# construct the argument parse and parse the arguments
ap = argparse.ArgumentParser()
ap.add_argument("-n", "--name", help="name of the user", default='host')
ap.add_argument('-num', '--number', required=True, help='choose a number')
args = vars(ap.parse_args())
# display a friendly message to the user
print("Hi there {}, it's nice to meet you! you chose {}".format(args['name'], args['age']))
#staticmethod
def func2():
# construct the argument parse and parse the arguments
ap = argparse.ArgumentParser()
ap.add_argument("-n", "--name", help="name of the user", default='host')
ap.add_argument('-num', '--number', required=True, help='choose a number')
ap.add_argument("-g", "--greet", help="say greetings", default='hello')
args = vars(ap.parse_args())
# display a friendly message to the user
print("{} there {}, it's nice to meet you! you chose {}".format(args['greet'], args['name'], args['age']))
I'd like to be able to call either func1() or func2() from the command line, so, I created another file called pyrun.py from this link
# !/usr/bin/env python
# make executable in bash chmod +x PyRun
import sys
import inspect
import importlib
import os
if __name__ == "__main__":
cmd_folder = os.path.realpath(os.path.abspath(os.path.split(inspect.getfile(inspect.currentframe()))[0]))
if cmd_folder not in sys.path:
sys.path.insert(0, cmd_folder)
# get the second argument from the command line
methodname = sys.argv[1]
# split this into module, class and function name
modulename, classname, funcname = methodname.split(".")
# get pointers to the objects based on the string names
themodule = importlib.import_module(modulename)
theclass = getattr(themodule, classname)
thefunc = getattr(theclass, funcname)
# pass all the parameters from the third until the end of what the function needs & ignore the rest
args = inspect.getargspec(thefunc)
print(args)
However, args in ArgSpec(args=[], varargs=None, keywords=None, defaults=None) shows an empty list.
How can I extract the parameters from either func1 or func2?
Is there a better way to run either func1 or func2 from the command line?
You probably want to use sub-commands. Here is an implementation of your example using sub-commands.
import argparse
def func1(args):
print("Hi there {}, it is nice to meet you! You chose {}.".format(args.name, args.number))
def func2(args):
print("{} there {}, it is nice to meet you! You chose {}.".format(args.greet, args.name, args.number))
#
# The top-level parser
#
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser('top.py', description='An example sub-command implementation')
#
# General sub-command parser object
#
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(help='sub-command help')
#
# Specific sub-command parsers
#
cmd1_parser = subparsers.add_parser('cmd1', help='The first sub-command')
cmd2_parser = subparsers.add_parser('cmd2', help='The second sub-command')
#
# Assign the execution functions
#
cmd1_parser.set_defaults(func=func1)
cmd2_parser.set_defaults(func=func2)
#
# Add the common options
#
for cmd_parser in [cmd1_parser, cmd2_parser]:
cmd_parser.add_argument('-n', '--name', default='host', help='Name of the user')
cmd_parser.add_argument('-num', '--number', required=True, help='Number to report')
#
# Add command-specific options
#
cmd2_parser.add_argument('-g', '--greet', default='hello', help='Greeting to use')
#
# Parse the arguments
#
args = parser.parse_args()
#
# Invoke the function
#
args.func(args)
Example output:
$ python ./top.py cmd1 -n Mark -num 3
Hi there Mark, it is nice to meet you! You chose 3.
$ python ./top.py cmd2 -n Bob -num 7 -g Hello
Hello there Bob, it is nice to meet you! You chose 7.
And, of course, the help functions work for each of the sub-commands.
$ python ./top.py cmd2 -h
usage: top.py cmd2 [-h] [-n NAME] -num NUMBER [-g GREET]
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-n NAME, --name NAME Name of the user
-num NUMBER, --number NUMBER
Number to report
-g GREET, --greet GREET
Greeting to use
If I put your first block of code in a file, I can import it into a ipython session and run your 2 functions:
In [2]: import stack49311085 as app
In [3]: app.simple
Out[3]: stack49311085.simple
ipython tab expansion (which uses some form of inspect) shows me that the module has a simple class, and the class itself has two static functions.
I can call func1, and get an argparse error message:
In [4]: app.simple.func1()
usage: ipython3 [-h] [-n NAME] -num NUMBER
ipython3: error: the following arguments are required: -num/--number
An exception has occurred, use %tb to see the full traceback.
SystemExit: 2
Similarly for func2:
In [7]: app.simple.func2()
usage: ipython3 [-h] [-n NAME] -num NUMBER [-g GREET]
ipython3: error: the following arguments are required: -num/--number
An exception has occurred, use %tb to see the full traceback.
SystemExit: 2
parse_args as a default parses the sys.argv[1:] list, which obviouslly is not tailored to its requirements.
def foo(argv=None):
parser = ....
....
args = parse.parse_args(argv=argv)
return args
is a more useful wrapper. With this I can pass a test argv list, and get back the parsed Namespace. If I don't give it such a list, it will used the sys.argv default. When testing a parser I like to return and/or display the whole Namespace.
I haven't used inspect enough to try to figure out what you are trying to do with it, or how to correct it. You don't need inspect to run code in an imported module like this.
I can test your imported parser by modifying the sys.argv
In [8]: import sys
In [9]: sys.argv
Out[9]:
['/usr/local/bin/ipython3',
'--pylab',
'--nosep',
'--term-title',
'--InteractiveShellApp.pylab_import_all=False']
In [10]: sys.argv[1:] = ['-h']
In [11]: app.simple.func2()
usage: ipython3 [-h] [-n NAME] -num NUMBER [-g GREET]
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-n NAME, --name NAME name of the user
-num NUMBER, --number NUMBER
choose a number
-g GREET, --greet GREET
say greetings
An exception has occurred, use %tb to see the full traceback.
SystemExit: 0
Or following the help:
In [12]: sys.argv[1:] = ['-num=42', '-nPaul', '-gHI']
In [13]: app.simple.func2()
...
---> 30 print("{} there {}, it's nice to meet you! you chose {}".format(args['greet'], args['name'], args['age']))
KeyError: 'age'
Oops, there's an error in your code. You ask for args['age'], but didn't define a parser argument with that name. That's part of why I like to print the args Namespace` - to make sure it is setting all the attributes that I expect.
Normally we don't use different parsers for different inputs. It's possible to do that based on your own test of sys.avgv[1], but keep in mind that that string will still be on sys.argv[1:] list that your parser(s) read. Instead write one parser that can handle the various styles of input. The subparser mentioned in the other answer is one option. Another is to base your action on the value of the args.greet attribute. If not used it will be the default value.
I am creating a python script and for parsing the arguments I would need this:
the script will accept three parameters, only one always mandatory, the second one will only be mandatory depending on certain values of the first one and the third one may or may not appear.
This is my try:
class pathAction(argparse.Action):
folder = {'remote':'/path1', 'projects':'/path2'}
def __call__(self, parser, args, values, option = None):
args.path = values
print "ferw %s " % args.component
if args.component=='hos' or args.component=='hcr':
print "rte %s" % args.path
if args.path and pathAction.folder.get(args.path):
args.path = pathAction.folder[args.path]
else:
parser.error("You must enter the folder you want to clean: available choices[remote, projects]")
def main():
try:
# Arguments parsing
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="""This script will clean the old component files.""")
parser.add_argument("-c", "--component", help="component to clean", type=lowerit, choices=["hos", "hcr", "mdw", "gui"], required=True)
parser.add_argument("-p", "--path", help="path to clean", action = pathAction, choices = ["remote", "projects"])
parser.add_argument("-d", "--delete", help="parameter for deleting the files from the filesystem", nargs='*', default=True)
args = parser.parse_args()
if works well except one case: if i have -c it should complain because there is no -p however it does not
Can you help me please?
Thanks
You can add some custom validation like this:
if args.component and not args.path:
parser.error('Your error message!')
Your special action will be used only if there is a -p argument. If you just give it a -c the cross check is never used.
Generally checking for interactions after parse_args (as Gohn67 suggested) is more reliable, and simpler than with custom actions.
What happens if your commandline was '-p remote -c ...'? pathAction would be called before the -c value is parsed and set. Is that what you want? Your special action only works if -p is given, and is the last argument.
Another option is to make 'component' a subparser positional. By default positionals are required. path and delete can be added to those subparsers that need them.
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="""This script will clean the old component files.""")
p1 = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
p1.add_argument("path", help="path to clean", choices = ["remote", "projects"])
p2 = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
p2.add_argument("-d", "--delete", help="parameter for deleting the files from the filesystem", nargs='*', default=True)
sp = parser.add_subparsers(dest='component',description="component to clean")
sp.add_parser('hos', parents=[p1,p2])
sp.add_parser('hcr', parents=[p1,p2])
sp.add_parser('mdw', parents=[p2])
sp.add_parser('gui', parents=[p2])
print parser.parse_args()
sample use:
1848:~/mypy$ python2.7 stack21625446.py hos remote -d 1 2 3
Namespace(component='hos', delete=['1', '2', '3'], path='remote')
I used parents to simplify adding arguments to multiple subparsers. I made path a positional, since it is required (for 2 of the subparsers). In those cases --path just makes the user type more. With nargs='*', --delete has to belong to the subparsers so it can occur last. If it's nargs was fixed (None or number) it could be an argument of parser.
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
Assume I have a program that uses argparse to process command line arguments/options. The following will print the 'help' message:
./myprogram -h
or:
./myprogram --help
But, if I run the script without any arguments whatsoever, it doesn't do anything. What I want it to do is to display the usage message when it is called with no arguments. How is that done?
This answer comes from Steven Bethard on Google groups. I'm reposting it here to make it easier for people without a Google account to access.
You can override the default behavior of the error method:
import argparse
import sys
class MyParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
def error(self, message):
sys.stderr.write('error: %s\n' % message)
self.print_help()
sys.exit(2)
parser = MyParser()
parser.add_argument('foo', nargs='+')
args = parser.parse_args()
Note that the above solution will print the help message whenever the error
method is triggered. For example, test.py --blah will print the help message
too if --blah isn't a valid option.
If you want to print the help message only if no arguments are supplied on the
command line, then perhaps this is still the easiest way:
import argparse
import sys
parser=argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('foo', nargs='+')
if len(sys.argv)==1:
parser.print_help(sys.stderr)
sys.exit(1)
args=parser.parse_args()
Note that parser.print_help() prints to stdout by default. As init_js suggests, use parser.print_help(sys.stderr) to print to stderr.
Instead of writing a class, a try/except can be used instead
try:
options = parser.parse_args()
except:
parser.print_help()
sys.exit(0)
The upside is that the workflow is clearer and you don't need a stub class. The downside is that the first 'usage' line is printed twice.
This will need at least one mandatory argument. With no mandatory arguments, providing zero args on the commandline is valid.
With argparse you could use ArgumentParser.print_usage():
parser.argparse.ArgumentParser()
# parser.add_args here
# sys.argv includes a list of elements starting with the program
if len(sys.argv) < 2:
parser.print_usage()
sys.exit(1)
Printing help
ArgumentParser.print_usage(file=None)
Print a brief description of how the ArgumentParser should be invoked on the command line. If file is None, sys.stdout is assumed.
The cleanest solution will be to manually pass default argument if none were given on the command line:
parser.parse_args(args=None if sys.argv[1:] else ['--help'])
Complete example:
import argparse, sys
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('--host', default='localhost', help='Host to connect to')
# parse arguments
args = parser.parse_args(args=None if sys.argv[1:] else ['--help'])
# use your args
print("connecting to {}".format(args.host))
This will print complete help (not short usage) if called w/o arguments.
If you associate default functions for (sub)parsers, as is mentioned under add_subparsers, you can simply add it as the default action:
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.set_defaults(func=lambda x: parser.print_usage())
args = parser.parse_args()
args.func(args)
Add the try-except if you raise exceptions due to missing positional arguments.
If you have arguments that must be specified for the script to run - use the required parameter for ArgumentParser as shown below:-
parser.add_argument('--foo', required=True)
parse_args() will report an error if the script is run without any arguments.
Throwing my version into the pile here:
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
args = parser.parse_args()
if not vars(args):
parser.print_help()
parser.exit(1)
You may notice the parser.exit - I mainly do it like that because it saves an import line if that was the only reason for sys in the file...
There are a pair of one-liners with sys.argv[1:] (a very common Python's idiom to refer the command line arguments, being sys.argv[0] the script's name) that can do the job.
The first one is self-explanatory, clean and pythonic:
args = parser.parse_args(None if sys.argv[1:] else ['-h'])
The second one is a little hackier. Combining the previously evaluated fact that an empty list is False with the True == 1 and False == 0 equivalences you get this:
args = parser.parse_args([None, ['-h']][not sys.argv[1:]])
Maybe too many brackets, but pretty clear if a previous argument selection was made.
_, *av = sys.argv
args = parser.parse_args([None, ['-h']][not av])
parser.print_help()
parser.exit()
The parser.exit method also accept a status (returncode), and a message value (include a trailing newline yourself!).
an opinionated example,
:)
#!/usr/bin/env python3
""" Example argparser based python file
"""
import argparse
ARGP = argparse.ArgumentParser(
description=__doc__,
formatter_class=argparse.RawTextHelpFormatter,
)
ARGP.add_argument('--example', action='store_true', help='Example Argument')
def main(argp=None):
if argp is None:
argp = ARGP.parse_args() # pragma: no cover
if 'soemthing_went_wrong' and not argp.example:
ARGP.print_help()
ARGP.exit(status=64, message="\nSomething went wrong, --example condition was not set\n")
if __name__ == '__main__':
main() # pragma: no cover
Example calls:
$ python3 ~/helloworld.py; echo $?
usage: helloworld.py [-h] [--example]
Example argparser based python file
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--example Example Argument
Something went wrong, --example condition was not set
64
$ python3 ~/helloworld.py --example; echo $?
0
Most of the answers here required another module, such as sys, to be imported or were using optional arguments. I wanted to discover an answer that used only argparse, worked with required arguments, and if possible worked without catching exceptions. I ended up with the following:
import argparse
if __name__ == '__main__':
arg_parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
arg_parser.add_argument('input_file', type=str, help='The path to the input file.')
arg_parser.add_argument('output_file', type=str, help='The path to the output file.')
arg_parser.add_argument('-h','--help', action='store_true', help='show this help message and exit')
arg_parser.usage = arg_parser.format_help()
args = arg_parser.parse_args()
The main idea was to use the format_help function in order to provide the help string to the usage statement. Setting add_help to False in the call to ArgumentParser() prevents the help statement from printing twice in certain circumstances. However, I had to create an argument for the optional help argument that mimicked the typical help message once it was set to False in order to display the optional help argument in the help message. The action is set to store_true in the help argument to prevent the help message from filling in a value like HELP for the parameter when it prints the help message.
So for a really simple answer. Most of the time with argparse you are checking to see if parameters are set anyway, to call a function that does something.
If no parameters, just else out at the end and print the help. Simple and works.
import argparse
import sys
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument("--holidays", action='store_true')
group.add_argument("--people", action='store_true')
args=parser.parse_args()
if args.holidays:
get_holidays()
elif args.people:
get_people()
else:
parser.print_help(sys.stderr)
Here is another way to do it, if you need something flexible where you want to display help if specific params are passed, none at all or more than 1 conflicting arg:
import argparse
import sys
def main():
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('-d', '--days', required=False, help="Check mapped inventory that is x days old", default=None)
parser.add_argument('-e', '--event', required=False, action="store", dest="event_id",
help="Check mapped inventory for a specific event", default=None)
parser.add_argument('-b', '--broker', required=False, action="store", dest="broker_id",
help="Check mapped inventory for a broker", default=None)
parser.add_argument('-k', '--keyword', required=False, action="store", dest="event_keyword",
help="Check mapped inventory for a specific event keyword", default=None)
parser.add_argument('-p', '--product', required=False, action="store", dest="product_id",
help="Check mapped inventory for a specific product", default=None)
parser.add_argument('-m', '--metadata', required=False, action="store", dest="metadata",
help="Check mapped inventory for specific metadata, good for debugging past tix", default=None)
parser.add_argument('-u', '--update', required=False, action="store_true", dest="make_updates",
help="Update the event for a product if there is a difference, default No", default=False)
args = parser.parse_args()
days = args.days
event_id = args.event_id
broker_id = args.broker_id
event_keyword = args.event_keyword
product_id = args.product_id
metadata = args.metadata
make_updates = args.make_updates
no_change_counter = 0
change_counter = 0
req_arg = bool(days) + bool(event_id) + bool(broker_id) + bool(product_id) + bool(event_keyword) + bool(metadata)
if not req_arg:
print("Need to specify days, broker id, event id, event keyword or past tickets full metadata")
parser.print_help()
sys.exit()
elif req_arg != 1:
print("More than one option specified. Need to specify only one required option")
parser.print_help()
sys.exit()
# Processing logic here ...
Cheers!
I like to keep things as simple as possible, this works great:
#!/usr/bin/env python3
Description = """Tool description"""
Epilog = """toolname.py -a aflag -b bflag with these combined it does blah"""
arg_parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter,
description=Description,
epilog=Epilog,
)
try:
if len(sys.argv) == 1:
arg_parser.print_help()
except Exception as e:
print(e)
This is how I start all my tools as its always good to include some examples
When call add_subparsers method save the first positional argument to dest= and check value after argparse has been initialized, like this:
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(dest='command')
And just check this this variable:
if not args.command:
parser.print_help()
parser.exit(1) # If exit() - exit code will be zero (no error)
Full example:
#!/usr/bin/env python
""" doc """
import argparse
import sys
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__)
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(dest='command',
help='List of commands')
list_parser = subparsers.add_parser('list',
help='List contents')
list_parser.add_argument('dir', action='store',
help='Directory to list')
create_parser = subparsers.add_parser('create',
help='Create a directory')
create_parser.add_argument('dirname', action='store',
help='New directory to create')
create_parser.add_argument('--read-only', default=False, action='store_true',
help='Set permissions to prevent writing to the directory')
args = parser.parse_args()
if not args.command:
parser.print_help()
parser.exit(1)
print(vars(args)) # For debug
This approach is a lot more elegant than most others. Instead of overriding error(), you can control the behaviour a lot more precisely by wrapping the parse_args() method:
import sys
import argparse
HelpFlags = ('help', '--help', '-h', '/h', '?', '/?', )
class ArgParser (argparse.ArgumentParser):
def __init__(self, *args, **kws):
super().__init__(*args, **kws)
def parse_args(self, args=None, namespace=None):
if args is None:
args = sys.argv[1:]
if len(args) < 1 or (args[0].lower() in HelpFlags):
self.print_help(sys.stderr)
sys.exit()
return super().parse_args(args, namespace)
Set your positional arguments with nargs, and check if positional args are empty.
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('file', nargs='?')
args = parser.parse_args()
if not args.file:
parser.print_help()
Reference Python nargs
If your command is something where a user needs to choose some action, then use a mutually exclusive group with required=True.
This is kind of an extension to the answer given by pd321.
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group(required=True)
group.add_argument("--batch", action='store', type=int, metavar='pay_id')
group.add_argument("--list", action='store_true')
group.add_argument("--all", action='store_true', help='check all payments')
args=parser.parse_args()
if args.batch:
print('batch {}'.format(args.batch))
if args.list:
print('list')
if args.all:
print('all')
Output:
$ python3 a_test.py
usage: a_test.py [-h] (--batch pay_id | --list | --all)
a_test.py: error: one of the arguments --batch --list --all is required
This only give the basic help. And some of the other answers will give you the full help. But at least your users know they can do -h
This isn't good (also, because intercepts all errors), but:
def _error(parser):
def wrapper(interceptor):
parser.print_help()
sys.exit(-1)
return wrapper
def _args_get(args=sys.argv[1:]):
parser = argparser.ArgumentParser()
parser.error = _error(parser)
parser.add_argument(...)
...
Here is definition of the error function of the ArgumentParser class.
As you see, the following signature takes two arguments. However, functions outside the class know nothing about first argument self, because, roughly speaking, this argument is for the class.
def _error(self, message):
self.print_help()
sys.exit(-1)
def _args_get(args=sys.argv[1:]):
parser = argparser.ArgumentParser()
parser.error = _error
...
will output:
"AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'print_help'"
You can pass parser (self) in _error function, by calling it:
def _error(self, message):
self.print_help()
sys.exit(-1)
def _args_get(args=sys.argv[1:]):
parser = argparser.ArgumentParser()
parser.error = _error(parser)
...
But if you don't want exit the program right now, return it:
def _error(parser):
def wrapper():
parser.print_help()
sys.exit(-1)
return wrapper
Nonetheless, parser doesn't know that it has been modified. Thus, when an error occurs, it will print the cause of it (by the way, it's a localized translation). So intercept it:
def _error(parser):
def wrapper(interceptor):
parser.print_help()
sys.exit(-1)
return wrapper
Now, when an error occurs, parser will print the cause of it, and you'll intercept it, look at it, and... throw out.