Python: How to get all default values from argparse - python

When module optparse is used, then I can get all default values for all command line arguments like this:
import optparse
if __name__ == '__main__':
parser = optparse.OptionParser(usage='pokus --help')
parser.add_option("-d", "--debug", action='store_true', dest="debug",
default=False, help='Enabling debugging.')
options, args = parser.parse_args()
print(parser.defaults)
Since optparse is deprecated it is wise to rewrite your code to use argparse module. However I can't find any way how to get all default values of all command line arguments added to parser object:
import argparse
if __name__ == '__main__':
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(usage='pokus --help')
parser.add_argument("-d", "--debug", action='store_true', dest='debug',
default=False, help='Enabling debugging.')
args = parser.parse_args()
# <---- How to get default values for all arguments here?
# Not: vars(args)
I want to get all default values when I run program with (./app.py -d) or without any command line argument (./app.py).


I found solution:
import argparse
if __name__ == '__main__':
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(usage='pokus --help')
parser.add_argument("-d", "--debug", action='store_true', dest='debug',
default=False, help='Enabling debugging.')
parser.add_argument("-e", "--example", action='store', dest='example',
default="", help='Example of argument.')
# Arguments from command line and default values
args = vars(parser.parse_args())
# Only default values
defaults = vars(parser.parse_args([]))
Then you can compare args and defaults values and distinguish between default values and values from command line.


If you do not want to parse an empty input string, you can use the method get_default in the parser object:
import argparse
if __name__ == '__main__':
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(usage='pokus --help')
parser.add_argument("-d", "--debug", action='store_true', dest='debug',
default=False, help='Enabling debugging.')
args = parser.parse_args()
# To get a single default:
d_default = parser.get_default('d')
# To get all defaults:
all_defaults = {}
for key in vars(args):
all_defaults[key] = parser.get_default(key)
# Edit: Adding an alternative one-liner (using dict comprehension):
all_defaults = {key: parser.get_default(key) for key in vars(args)}


Somewhat late to the party, but this is a function (with bonus unittest) that I've used in a couple of cases to get hold of the default arguments without having to parse first (parsing first can be annoying if you have required arguments that aren't available yet)
def get_argparse_defaults(parser):
defaults = {}
for action in parser._actions:
if not action.required and action.dest != "help":
defaults[action.dest] = action.default
return defaults
def get_argparse_required(parser):
required = []
for action in parser._actions:
if action.required:
required.append(action.dest)
return required
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
optional_defaults_dict = get_argparse_defaults(parser)
required_list = get_argparse_required(parser)
class TestDefaultArgs(unittest.TestCase):
def test_get_args(self):
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('positional_arg')
parser.add_argument('--required_option', required=True)
parser.add_argument('--optional_with_default', required=False, default="default_value")
parser.add_argument('--optional_without_default', required=False)
required_args = get_argparse_required(parser)
self.assertEqual(['positional_arg', 'required_option'], required_args)
default_args = get_argparse_defaults(parser)
self.assertEqual({'optional_with_default': 'default_value',
'optional_without_default': None},
default_args)


For your information, here's the code, at the start of parsing that initializes the defaults:
def parse_known_args(...):
....
# add any action defaults that aren't present
for action in self._actions:
if action.dest is not SUPPRESS:
if not hasattr(namespace, action.dest):
if action.default is not SUPPRESS:
setattr(namespace, action.dest, action.default)
# add any parser defaults that aren't present
for dest in self._defaults:
if not hasattr(namespace, dest):
setattr(namespace, dest, self._defaults[dest])
...
So it loops through the parser._actions list, collecting the action.default attribute. (An action is a Action class object that was created by the parser.add_argument method.). It also checks self._defaults. This is the dictionary modified by a parse.set_defaults method. That can be used to set defaults that aren't linked directly to an action.
After parsing the command line, default strings in the namespace may be evaluated (with the action.type), turning, for example a default='1' into an integer 1.
Handling of defaults in argparse isn't trivial. Your parse_args([]) probably is simplest, provided the parser is ok with that (i.e. doesn't have any required arguments).
I don't know now optparse sets the defaults attribute. There is a non-trival method, optparse.OptionParser.get_default_values.


For the above example:
import argparse
if __name__ == '__main__':
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(usage='pokus --help')
parser.add_argument("-d", "--debug", action='store_true', dest='debug',
default=False, help='Enabling debugging.')
A. To get all the values with their defaults in a tuple format:
In[1]: args = parser.parse_known_args()[0]
In[2]: args._get_kwargs()
Out[1]: [('debug', False)]
to access to each item:
In[3]: args.debug
Out[2]: False
B. To get the values and their default as dictionary format
In[4]: dict_args = parser.parse_known_args()[0].__dict__
In[5]: dict_args
Out[3]: {'debug': False}
And to access each key:
In[6]: dict_args['debug']
Out[4]: False
Or print them iteratively:
In[7]: for key in dict_args:
... print('value for %s is: %s'% (key, dict_args[key]))
Out[5]: value for debug is: False

Related

How can i receive 1 argument with the python library parser and use just the argument?

I'm doing a command line application to verify if a website is active, and i want to receive one argument, but the parser needs receive an argument and a valor for this argument, So my question is: How can i use just 1 argument ?
This is my code:
if __name__=="__main__":
import requests
import datetime
from time import sleep
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('u', help="Unique verification")
parser.add_argument('c', help="Continuos verification")
parser.add_argument('s', help="Check and save to file")
parser.add_argument('d', help="Documentation")
args = parser.parse_args()
main(parser.parse_args)
My function main receives a char, how can i use a char via command line?

You are currently creating mandatory positional arguments, so that a call like
python3 verify.py foo bar baz bye
would result in
args.u == 'foo'
args.c == 'bar'
args.s == 'baz'
args.d == 'bye'
You want to define four options, using the store_true action so that providing the option will set a flag from its default False value to True.
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('-u', action='store_true', help="Unique verification")
parser.add_argument('-c', action='store_true', help="Continuos verification")
parser.add_argument('-s', action='store_true', help="Check and save to file")
parser.add_argument('-d', action='store_true', help="Documentation")
args = parser.parse_args()
Now a call like
python3 verify.py -u -s
would result in
args.u == True
args.c == False
args.s == True
args.d == False
If you want to further restrict the user to exactly one of the four options, use a mutual-exclusion group.
# Same as above, calling group.add_argument, not parser.add_argument
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument('-u', action='store_true', help="Unique verification")
group.add_argument('-c', action='store_true', help="Continuos verification")
group.add_argument('-s', action='store_true', help="Check and save to file")
group.add_argument('-d', action='store_true', help="Documentation")
args = parser.parse_args()

Resolve argparse alias back to the original command

I'm using a subparser/subcommand that has an alias.
I'm using the dest option for the subparser to store the name of the subcommand so I can get it later.
Currently if the subcommand's name is reallyLongName and the alias is r (say) then the dest option stores either reallyLongName or r exactly - whatever I typed in gets stored. This is annoying because I now have to check for the name of the command or any of its aliases in order to identify the command.
Is there a way to get argparse to store the subcommand's name in the dest field in some sort of single, canonical text string?
For example, given the following code:
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(dest='command', help='sub-command help')
parser_ag = subparsers.add_parser( 'mySubcommand',
aliases=['m'],
help='Subcommand help')
print(parser.parse_args('mySubcommand'.split()))
print(parser.parse_args('m'.split()))
the following output is produced:
Namespace(command='mySubcommand')
Namespace(command='m')
Desired result: command has a single, canonical value for both, for example:
Namespace(command='mySubcommand')
Namespace(command='mySubcommand')

There was a Python bug/issue requesting this - saving the 'base' name, rather than the alias. You can't change that without changing argparse.py code. I think the change would limited to the Action subclass that handles subparsers. https://bugs.python.org/issue36664
But I point out that there's simpler way of handling this. Just use set_defaults as documented near the end of the https://docs.python.org/3/library/argparse.html#sub-commands section. There
parser_foo.set_defaults(func=foo)
is used to set a subparser specific function, but it could just as well be used to set the 'base' name.
parser_foo.set_defaults(name='theIncrediblyLongAlias')

This was surprisingly difficult to dig out. When you add a subparser, it gets stored in the parents ._actions attribute. From there it is just digging through attributes to get what you need. Below I create dictionaries to reference the subparser arguments by the dest name, and then added a function that lets us remap the inputted arguments to the primary argument name.
from collections import defaultdict
def get_subparser_aliases(parser, dest):
out = defaultdict(list)
prog_str = parser.prog
dest_dict = {a.dest: a for a in parser._actions}
try:
choices = dest_dict.get(dest).choices
except AttributeError:
raise AttributeError(f'The parser "{parser}" has no subparser with a `dest` of "{dest}"')
for k, v in choices.items():
clean_v = v.prog.replace(prog_str, '', 1).strip()
out[clean_v].append(k)
return dict(out)
def remap_args(args, mapping, dest):
setattr(args, dest, mapping.get(getattr(args, dest)))
return args
Using your example, we can remap the parse args using:
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(dest='command', help='sub-command help')
parser_ag = subparsers.add_parser('mySubcommand',
aliases=['m'],
help='Subcommand help')
args = parser.parse_args('m'.split())
mapping = get_subparser_aliases(parser, 'command')
remap_args(args, mapping, 'command')
print(args)
# prints:
Namespace(command='mySubcommand')
Here is an example of it at work with multiple subparser levels.. We have a parser with an optional argument and a subparser. The subparser has 3 possible arguments, the last of which invoke another subparser (a sub-subparser), with 2 possible arguments.
You can examine either the top level parser or the first level subparser to see alias mappings.
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('--someoption', '-s', action='store_true')
subparser1 = parser.add_subparsers(help='sub-command help', dest='sub1')
parser_r = subparser1.add_parser('reallyLongName', aliases=['r'])
parser_r.add_argument('foo', type=int, help='foo help')
parser_s = subparser1.add_parser('otherReallyLong', aliases=['L'])
parser_s.add_argument('bar', choices='abc', help='bar help')
parser_z = subparser1.add_parser('otherOptions', aliases=['oo'])
subparser2 = parser_z.add_subparsers(help='sub-sub-command help', dest='sub2')
parser_x = subparser2.add_parser('xxx', aliases=['x'])
parser_x.add_argument('fizz', type=float, help='fizz help')
parser_y = subparser2.add_parser('yyy', aliases=['y'])
parser_y.add_argument('blip', help='blip help')
get_subparser_aliases(parser, 'sub1')
# returns:
{'reallyLongName': ['reallyLongName', 'r'],
'otherReallyLong': ['otherReallyLong', 'L'],
'otherOptions': ['otherOptions', 'oo']}
get_subparser_aliases(parser_z, 'sub2')
# returns:
{'xxx': ['xxx', 'x'], 'yyy': ['yyy', 'y']}
Using this with the function above, we can remap the collected args to their longer names.
args = parser.parse_args('-s oo x 1.23'.split())
print(args)
# prints:
Namespace(fizz=1.23, someoption=True, sub1='oo', sub2='x')
for p, dest in zip((parser, parser_z), ('sub1', 'sub2')):
mapping = get_subparser_aliases(p, dest)
remap_args(args, mapping, dest)
print(args)
# prints:
Namespace(fizz=1.23, someoption=True, sub1='otherOptions', sub2='xxx')

Python argparse - Mutually exclusive group with default if no argument is given

I'm writing a Python script to process a machine-readable file and output a human-readable report on the data contained within.
I would like to give the option of outputting the data to stdout (-s) (by default) or to a txt (-t) or csv (-c) file. I would like to have a switch for the default behaviour, as many commands do.
In terms of Usage:, I'd like to see something like script [-s | -c | -t] input file, and have -s be the default if no arguments are passed.
I currently have (for the relevant args, in brief):
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument('-s', '--stdout', action='store_true')
group.add_argument('-c', '--csv', action='store_true')
group.add_argument('-t', '--txt', action='store_true')
args = parser.parse_args()
if not any((args.stdout, args.csv, args.txt)):
args.stdout = True
So if none of -s, -t, or -c are set, stdout (-s) is forced to True, exactly as if -s had been passed.
Is there a better way to achieve this? Or would another approach entirely be generally considered 'better' for some reason?
Note: I'm using Python 3.5.1/2 and I'm not worried about compatibility with other versions, as there is no plan to share this script with others at this point. It's simply to make my life easier.

You could have each of your actions update the same variable, supplying stdout as the default value for that variable.
Consider this program:
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument(
'-s', '--stdout', action='store_const', dest='type', const='s', default='s')
group.add_argument(
'-c', '--csv', action='store_const', dest='type', const='c')
group.add_argument(
'-t', '--txt', action='store_const', dest='type', const='t')
args = parser.parse_args()
print args
Your code could look like:
if args.type == 's':
ofile = sys.stdout
elif args.type == 'c':
ofile = ...
...
First alternative:
Rather than arbitrarily choose one of the .add_argument()s to specify the default type, you can use parser.set_defaults() to specify the default type.
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument('-s', '--stdout', action='store_const', dest='type', const='s')
group.add_argument('-c', '--csv', action='store_const', dest='type', const='c')
group.add_argument('-t', '--txt', action='store_const', dest='type', const='t')
parser.set_defaults(type='s')
args = parser.parse_args()
print args
Second alternative:
Rather than specify the type as an enumerated value, you could store a callable into the type, and then invoke the callable:
import argparse
def do_stdout():
# do everything that is required to support stdout
print("stdout!")
return
def do_csv():
# do everything that is required to support CSV file
print("csv!")
return
def do_text():
# do everything that is required to support TXT file
print("text!")
return
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument('-s', '--stdout', action='store_const', dest='type', const=do_stdout)
group.add_argument('-c', '--csv', action='store_const', dest='type', const=do_csv)
group.add_argument('-t', '--txt', action='store_const', dest='type', const=do_text)
parser.set_defaults(type=do_stdout)
args = parser.parse_args()
print args
args.type()

You can "cheat" with sys.argv :
import sys
def main():
if len(sys.argv) == 2 and sys.argv[1] not in ['-s', '-c', '-t', '-h']:
filename = sys.argv[1]
print "mode : stdout", filename
else:
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument('-s', '--stdout')
group.add_argument('-c', '--csv')
group.add_argument('-t', '--txt')
args = parser.parse_args()
if args.stdout:
print "mode stdout :", args.stdout
if args.csv:
print "mode csv :", args.csv
if args.txt:
print "mode txt :", args.txt
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()

Python optparse make_option() equivalent in argparse

From the OPTPARSE library reference:
option_list = [
make_option("-f", "--filename",
action="store", type="string", dest="filename"),
make_option("-q", "--quiet",
action="store_false", dest="verbose"),
]
parser = OptionParser(option_list=option_list)
Like the above example, I want to make a option list using make_option and pass it to a decorator which instantiates the parser and adds the arguments.
How can this be achieved in argparse? Is there a way to populate the parser other than parse_args()?

You can give argparse.ArgumentParser a list of parent parsers:
parent = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
parent.add_argument('-f','--filename')
parent.add_argument('-q','--quiet',action='store_false',dest='verbose')
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(parents=[parent])
...
namespace = parser.parse_args()

def process_args():
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('-f', '--filename', dest='filename', type=string, action='store')
args = parser.parse_args()
return args
if __name__ == '__main__':
args = process_args()

How to parse multiple nested sub-commands using python argparse?

I am implementing a command line program which has interface like this:
cmd [GLOBAL_OPTIONS] {command [COMMAND_OPTS]} [{command [COMMAND_OPTS]} ...]
I have gone through the argparse documentation. I can implement GLOBAL_OPTIONS as optional argument using add_argument in argparse. And the {command [COMMAND_OPTS]} using Sub-commands.
From the documentation it seems I can have only one sub-command. But as you can see I have to implement one or more sub-commands. What is the best way to parse such command line arguments useing argparse?

I came up with the same qustion, and it seems i have got a better answer.
The solution is we shall not simply nest subparser with another subparser, but we can add subparser following with a parser following another subparser.
Code tell you how:
parent_parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
parent_parser.add_argument('--user', '-u',
default=getpass.getuser(),
help='username')
parent_parser.add_argument('--debug', default=False, required=False,
action='store_true', dest="debug", help='debug flag')
main_parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
service_subparsers = main_parser.add_subparsers(title="service",
dest="service_command")
service_parser = service_subparsers.add_parser("first", help="first",
parents=[parent_parser])
action_subparser = service_parser.add_subparsers(title="action",
dest="action_command")
action_parser = action_subparser.add_parser("second", help="second",
parents=[parent_parser])
args = main_parser.parse_args()

#mgilson has a nice answer to this question. But problem with splitting sys.argv myself is that i lose all the nice help message Argparse generates for the user. So i ended up doing this:
import argparse
## This function takes the 'extra' attribute from global namespace and re-parses it to create separate namespaces for all other chained commands.
def parse_extra (parser, namespace):
namespaces = []
extra = namespace.extra
while extra:
n = parser.parse_args(extra)
extra = n.extra
namespaces.append(n)
return namespaces
argparser=argparse.ArgumentParser()
subparsers = argparser.add_subparsers(help='sub-command help', dest='subparser_name')
parser_a = subparsers.add_parser('command_a', help = "command_a help")
## Setup options for parser_a
## Add nargs="*" for zero or more other commands
argparser.add_argument('extra', nargs = "*", help = 'Other commands')
## Do similar stuff for other sub-parsers
Now after first parse all chained commands are stored in extra. I reparse it while it is not empty to get all the chained commands and create separate namespaces for them. And i get nicer usage string that argparse generates.

parse_known_args returns a Namespace and a list of unknown strings. This is similar to the extra in the checked answer.
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('--foo')
sub = parser.add_subparsers()
for i in range(1,4):
sp = sub.add_parser('cmd%i'%i)
sp.add_argument('--foo%i'%i) # optionals have to be distinct
rest = '--foo 0 cmd2 --foo2 2 cmd3 --foo3 3 cmd1 --foo1 1'.split() # or sys.argv
args = argparse.Namespace()
while rest:
args,rest = parser.parse_known_args(rest,namespace=args)
print args, rest
produces:
Namespace(foo='0', foo2='2') ['cmd3', '--foo3', '3', 'cmd1', '--foo1', '1']
Namespace(foo='0', foo2='2', foo3='3') ['cmd1', '--foo1', '1']
Namespace(foo='0', foo1='1', foo2='2', foo3='3') []
An alternative loop would give each subparser its own namespace. This allows overlap in positionals names.
argslist = []
while rest:
args,rest = parser.parse_known_args(rest)
argslist.append(args)

The solution provide by #Vikas fails for subcommand-specific optional arguments, but the approach is valid. Here is an improved version:
import argparse
# create the top-level parser
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
parser.add_argument('--foo', action='store_true', help='foo help')
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(help='sub-command help', dest='subparser_name')
# create the parser for the "command_a" command
parser_a = subparsers.add_parser('command_a', help='command_a help')
parser_a.add_argument('bar', type=int, help='bar help')
# create the parser for the "command_b" command
parser_b = subparsers.add_parser('command_b', help='command_b help')
parser_b.add_argument('--baz', choices='XYZ', help='baz help')
# parse some argument lists
argv = ['--foo', 'command_a', '12', 'command_b', '--baz', 'Z']
while argv:
print(argv)
options, argv = parser.parse_known_args(argv)
print(options)
if not options.subparser_name:
break
This uses parse_known_args instead of parse_args. parse_args aborts as soon as a argument unknown to the current subparser is encountered, parse_known_args returns them as a second value in the returned tuple. In this approach, the remaining arguments are fed again to the parser. So for each command, a new Namespace is created.
Note that in this basic example, all global options are added to the first options Namespace only, not to the subsequent Namespaces.
This approach works fine for most situations, but has three important limitations:
It is not possible to use the same optional argument for different subcommands, like myprog.py command_a --foo=bar command_b --foo=bar.
It is not possible to use any variable length positional arguments with subcommands (nargs='?' or nargs='+' or nargs='*').
Any known argument is parsed, without 'breaking' at the new command. E.g. in PROG --foo command_b command_a --baz Z 12 with the above code, --baz Z will be consumed by command_b, not by command_a.
These limitations are a direct limitation of argparse. Here is a simple example that shows the limitations of argparse -even when using a single subcommand-:
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('spam', nargs='?')
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(help='sub-command help', dest='subparser_name')
# create the parser for the "command_a" command
parser_a = subparsers.add_parser('command_a', help='command_a help')
parser_a.add_argument('bar', type=int, help='bar help')
# create the parser for the "command_b" command
parser_b = subparsers.add_parser('command_b', help='command_b help')
options = parser.parse_args('command_a 42'.split())
print(options)
This will raise the error: argument subparser_name: invalid choice: '42' (choose from 'command_a', 'command_b').
The cause is that the internal method argparse.ArgParser._parse_known_args() it is too greedy and assumes that command_a is the value of the optional spam argument. In particular, when 'splitting' up optional and positional arguments, _parse_known_args() does not look at the names of the arugments (like command_a or command_b), but merely where they occur in the argument list. It also assumes that any subcommand will consume all remaining arguments.
This limitation of argparse also prevents a proper implementation of multi-command subparsers. This unfortunately means that a proper implementation requires a full rewrite of the argparse.ArgParser._parse_known_args() method, which is 200+ lines of code.
Given these limitation, it may be an options to simply revert to a single multiple-choice argument instead of subcommands:
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('--bar', type=int, help='bar help')
parser.add_argument('commands', nargs='*', metavar='COMMAND',
choices=['command_a', 'command_b'])
options = parser.parse_args('--bar 2 command_a command_b'.split())
print(options)
#options = parser.parse_args(['--help'])
It is even possible to list the different commands in the usage information, see my answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/49999185/428542

You can always split up the command-line yourself (split sys.argv on your command names), and then only pass the portion corresponding to the particular command to parse_args -- You can even use the same Namespace using the namespace keyword if you want.
Grouping the commandline is easy with itertools.groupby:
import sys
import itertools
import argparse
mycommands=['cmd1','cmd2','cmd3']
def groupargs(arg,currentarg=[None]):
if(arg in mycommands):currentarg[0]=arg
return currentarg[0]
commandlines=[list(args) for cmd,args in intertools.groupby(sys.argv,groupargs)]
#setup parser here...
parser=argparse.ArgumentParser()
#...
namespace=argparse.Namespace()
for cmdline in commandlines:
parser.parse_args(cmdline,namespace=namespace)
#Now do something with namespace...
untested

Improving on the answer by #mgilson, I wrote a small parsing method which splits argv into parts and puts values of arguments of commands into hierarchy of namespaces:
import sys
import argparse
def parse_args(parser, commands):
# Divide argv by commands
split_argv = [[]]
for c in sys.argv[1:]:
if c in commands.choices:
split_argv.append([c])
else:
split_argv[-1].append(c)
# Initialize namespace
args = argparse.Namespace()
for c in commands.choices:
setattr(args, c, None)
# Parse each command
parser.parse_args(split_argv[0], namespace=args) # Without command
for argv in split_argv[1:]: # Commands
n = argparse.Namespace()
setattr(args, argv[0], n)
parser.parse_args(argv, namespace=n)
return args
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
commands = parser.add_subparsers(title='sub-commands')
cmd1_parser = commands.add_parser('cmd1')
cmd1_parser.add_argument('--foo')
cmd2_parser = commands.add_parser('cmd2')
cmd2_parser.add_argument('--foo')
cmd2_parser = commands.add_parser('cmd3')
cmd2_parser.add_argument('--foo')
args = parse_args(parser, commands)
print(args)
It behaves properly, providing nice argparse help:
For ./test.py --help:
usage: test.py [-h] {cmd1,cmd2,cmd3} ...
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
sub-commands:
{cmd1,cmd2,cmd3}
For ./test.py cmd1 --help:
usage: test.py cmd1 [-h] [--foo FOO]
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--foo FOO
And creates a hierarchy of namespaces containing the argument values:
./test.py cmd1 --foo 3 cmd3 --foo 4
Namespace(cmd1=Namespace(foo='3'), cmd2=None, cmd3=Namespace(foo='4'))

You could try arghandler. This is an extension to argparse with explicit support for subcommands.

Built a full Python 2/3 example with subparsers, parse_known_args and parse_args (running on IDEone):
from __future__ import print_function
from argparse import ArgumentParser
from random import randint
def main():
parser = get_parser()
input_sum_cmd = ['sum_cmd', '--sum']
input_min_cmd = ['min_cmd', '--min']
args, rest = parser.parse_known_args(
# `sum`
input_sum_cmd +
['-a', str(randint(21, 30)),
'-b', str(randint(51, 80))] +
# `min`
input_min_cmd +
['-y', str(float(randint(64, 79))),
'-z', str(float(randint(91, 120)) + .5)]
)
print('args:\t ', args,
'\nrest:\t ', rest, '\n', sep='')
sum_cmd_result = args.sm((args.a, args.b))
print(
'a:\t\t {:02d}\n'.format(args.a),
'b:\t\t {:02d}\n'.format(args.b),
'sum_cmd: {:02d}\n'.format(sum_cmd_result), sep='')
assert rest[0] == 'min_cmd'
args = parser.parse_args(rest)
min_cmd_result = args.mn((args.y, args.z))
print(
'y:\t\t {:05.2f}\n'.format(args.y),
'z:\t\t {:05.2f}\n'.format(args.z),
'min_cmd: {:05.2f}'.format(min_cmd_result), sep='')
def get_parser():
# create the top-level parser
parser = ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(help='sub-command help')
# create the parser for the "sum" command
parser_a = subparsers.add_parser('sum_cmd', help='sum some integers')
parser_a.add_argument('-a', type=int,
help='an integer for the accumulator')
parser_a.add_argument('-b', type=int,
help='an integer for the accumulator')
parser_a.add_argument('--sum', dest='sm', action='store_const',
const=sum, default=max,
help='sum the integers (default: find the max)')
# create the parser for the "min" command
parser_b = subparsers.add_parser('min_cmd', help='min some integers')
parser_b.add_argument('-y', type=float,
help='an float for the accumulator')
parser_b.add_argument('-z', type=float,
help='an float for the accumulator')
parser_b.add_argument('--min', dest='mn', action='store_const',
const=min, default=0,
help='smallest integer (default: 0)')
return parser
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()

I had more or less the same requirements: Being able to set global arguments and being able to chain commands and execute them in order of command line.
I ended up with the following code. I did use some parts of the code from this and other threads.
# argtest.py
import sys
import argparse
def init_args():
def parse_args_into_namespaces(parser, commands):
'''
Split all command arguments (without prefix, like --) in
own namespaces. Each command accepts extra options for
configuration.
Example: `add 2 mul 5 --repeat 3` could be used to a sequencial
addition of 2, then multiply with 5 repeated 3 times.
'''
class OrderNamespace(argparse.Namespace):
'''
Add `command_order` attribute - a list of command
in order on the command line. This allows sequencial
processing of arguments.
'''
globals = None
def __init__(self, **kwargs):
self.command_order = []
super(OrderNamespace, self).__init__(**kwargs)
def __setattr__(self, attr, value):
attr = attr.replace('-', '_')
if value and attr not in self.command_order:
self.command_order.append(attr)
super(OrderNamespace, self).__setattr__(attr, value)
# Divide argv by commands
split_argv = [[]]
for c in sys.argv[1:]:
if c in commands.choices:
split_argv.append([c])
else:
split_argv[-1].append(c)
# Globals arguments without commands
args = OrderNamespace()
cmd, args_raw = 'globals', split_argv.pop(0)
args_parsed = parser.parse_args(args_raw, namespace=OrderNamespace())
setattr(args, cmd, args_parsed)
# Split all commands to separate namespace
pos = 0
while len(split_argv):
pos += 1
cmd, *args_raw = split_argv.pop(0)
assert cmd[0].isalpha(), 'Command must start with a letter.'
args_parsed = commands.choices[cmd].parse_args(args_raw, namespace=OrderNamespace())
setattr(args, f'{cmd}~{pos}', args_parsed)
return args
#
# Supported commands and options
#
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(formatter_class=argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter)
parser.add_argument('--print', action='store_true')
commands = parser.add_subparsers(title='Operation chain')
cmd1_parser = commands.add_parser('add', formatter_class=argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter)
cmd1_parser.add_argument('add', help='Add this number.', type=float)
cmd1_parser.add_argument('-r', '--repeat', help='Repeat this operation N times.',
default=1, type=int)
cmd2_parser = commands.add_parser('mult', formatter_class=argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter)
cmd2_parser.add_argument('mult', help='Multiply with this number.', type=float)
cmd2_parser.add_argument('-r', '--repeat', help='Repeat this operation N times.',
default=1, type=int)
args = parse_args_into_namespaces(parser, commands)
return args
#
# DEMO
#
args = init_args()
# print('Parsed arguments:')
# for cmd in args.command_order:
# namespace = getattr(args, cmd)
# for option_name in namespace.command_order:
# option_value = getattr(namespace, option_name)
# print((cmd, option_name, option_value))
print('Execution:')
result = 0
for cmd in args.command_order:
namespace = getattr(args, cmd)
cmd_name, cmd_position = cmd.split('~') if cmd.find('~') > -1 else (cmd, 0)
if cmd_name == 'globals':
pass
elif cmd_name == 'add':
for r in range(namespace.repeat):
if args.globals.print:
print(f'+ {namespace.add}')
result = result + namespace.add
elif cmd_name == 'mult':
for r in range(namespace.repeat):
if args.globals.print:
print(f'* {namespace.mult}')
result = result * namespace.mult
else:
raise NotImplementedError(f'Namespace `{cmd}` is not implemented.')
print(10*'-')
print(result)
Below an example:
$ python argstest.py --print add 1 -r 2 mult 5 add 3 mult -r 5 5
Execution:
+ 1.0
+ 1.0
* 5.0
+ 3.0
* 5.0
* 5.0
* 5.0
* 5.0
* 5.0
----------
40625.0

Another package which supports parallel parsers is "declarative_parser".
import argparse
from declarative_parser import Parser, Argument
supported_formats = ['png', 'jpeg', 'gif']
class InputParser(Parser):
path = Argument(type=argparse.FileType('rb'), optional=False)
format = Argument(default='png', choices=supported_formats)
class OutputParser(Parser):
format = Argument(default='jpeg', choices=supported_formats)
class ImageConverter(Parser):
description = 'This app converts images'
verbose = Argument(action='store_true')
input = InputParser()
output = OutputParser()
parser = ImageConverter()
commands = '--verbose input image.jpeg --format jpeg output --format gif'.split()
namespace = parser.parse_args(commands)
and namespace becomes:
Namespace(
input=Namespace(format='jpeg', path=<_io.BufferedReader name='image.jpeg'>),
output=Namespace(format='gif'),
verbose=True
)
Disclaimer: I am the author. Requires Python 3.6. To install use:
pip3 install declarative_parser
Here is the documentation and here is the repo on GitHub.

In order to parse the sub commands, I used the following (referred from argparse.py code). It parses the sub parser arguments and retains the help for both. Nothing additional passed there.
args, _ = parser.parse_known_args()

you can use the package optparse
import optparse
parser = optparse.OptionParser()
parser.add_option("-f", dest="filename", help="corpus filename")
parser.add_option("--alpha", dest="alpha", type="float", help="parameter alpha", default=0.5)
(options, args) = parser.parse_args()
fname = options.filename
alpha = options.alpha

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