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()
I have the problem that I am not seeing any default values for arguments when specifying them via add_argument for subparsers using the argparse Python package.
Some research said that you need non-empty help-parameters set for each add_argument step and you need ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter as formatter_class as described here:
Argparse: Way to include default values in '--help'?
That's not working for me, however. I suspect that somehow the subparser defaults are suppressed.
Here's an example:
from argparse import ArgumentParser, ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter
parser = ArgumentParser(description="Sample script", formatter_class=ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter, version="sample version")
# Initialize Subparsers
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(help="", dest="command")
# foo command
fooparser = subparsers.add_parser('foo', help='Do foo')
fooparser.add_argument('files', action='store', help='Foo file(s)' , nargs="+")
fooparser.add_argument("-5", "--Do5", type=int, required=False, dest="do5", help="Do 5 subprocedure.")
fooparser.add_argument("-n", "--topn", type=int, required=False, dest="topn", default=1, help="Show topn")
# bar command
barparser = subparsers.add_parser('bar', help='Do bar')
barparser.add_argument('files', action='store', help='Bar file(s)' , nargs="+")
barparser.add_argument("-mq", "--min-mq", type=int, required=False, default=2, dest="mq", help="Minimum MQ")
barparser.add_argument("-mi", "--min-identity", type=float, required=False, default=0.95, dest="identity", help="Minimum identity")
args = parser.parse_args()
Specify formatter_class when adding sub-parsers.
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(help="", dest="command")
fooparser = subparsers.add_parser('foo', help='Do foo',
formatter_class=ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter)
...
barparser = subparsers.add_parser('bar', help='Do bar',
formatter_class=ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter)
...
Output of python argparse_test.py --help foo:
usage: argparse_test.py foo [-h] [-5 DO5] [-n TOPN] files [files ...]
positional arguments:
files Foo file(s)
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-5 DO5, --Do5 DO5 Do 5 subprocedure. (default: None)
-n TOPN, --topn TOPN Show topn (default: 1)
Recently, I am learning argparse module, Argument error occurred below the code
import argparse
import sys
class ExecuteShell(object):
def create(self, args):
"""aaaaaaa"""
print('aaaaaaa')
return args
def list(self, args):
"""ccccccc"""
print('ccccccc')
return args
def delete(self, args):
"""ddddddd"""
print('ddddddd')
return args
class TestShell(object):
def get_base_parser(self):
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('-h',
'--help',
action='store_true',
help=argparse.SUPPRESS)
parser.add_argument('-c', action='store',
dest='create_value',
help='create a file')
parser.add_argument('-d', action='store',
dest='delete_value',
help='delete a file')
parser.add_argument('-l', action='store',
dest='list_value',
help='list a dir')
return parser
def _find_actions(self, subparsers, actions_module):
for attr in (action for action in dir(actions_module) if not action.startswith('__')):
callback = getattr(actions_module, attr)
desc = callback.__doc__ or ''
subparser = subparsers.add_parser(attr, description=desc)
subparser.add_argument('-h', '--help', action='help',
help=argparse.SUPPRESS)
self.subcommands[attr] = subparser
subparser.set_defaults(func=callback)
def main(self, args):
parser = self.get_base_parser()
(options, args) = parser.parse_known_args(args)
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(metavar='<subcommand>')
a = ExecuteShell()
self.subcommands = {}
subcommand_parser = self._find_actions(subparsers, a)
if __name__ == "__main__":
a = TestShell()
a.main(sys.argv[1:])
Why do I get this error and how can I fix it?
argparse adds --help and -h options by default. If you don't want to use the built-in help feature, you need to disable it with:
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
See the documentation
The same error pop-ups in 2 other scenarios:
1) Repeated code
parser.add_argument('-h',
'--help',
action='store_true',
help=argparse.SUPPRESS)
parser.add_argument('-h',
'--help',
action='store_true',
help=argparse.SUPPRESS)
2) When you execute the code multiple times on the same kernel
I'm leaving it just in case if someone had simillar problem.
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
I currently have 2 functions in my .py script.
#1 connects to the database and does some processing.
#2 does some other processing on files
Currently before I run the script, I have to manually comment/uncomment the function I want to run in my main if statement block.
How can I use argparse, so it asks me which function to run when I run my script?
It is possible to tell ArgumentParser objects about the function or object that has your desired behavior directly, by means of action='store_const' and const=<stuff> pairs in an add_argument() call, or with a set_defaults() call (the latter is most useful when you're using sub-parsers). If you do that, you can look up your function on the parsed_args object you get back from the parsing, instead of say, looking it up in the global namespace.
As a little example:
import argparse
def foo(parsed_args):
print "woop is {0!r}".format(getattr(parsed_args, 'woop'))
def bar(parsed_args):
print "moop is {0!r}".format(getattr(parsed_args, 'moop'))
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('--foo', dest='action', action='store_const', const=foo)
parser.add_argument('--bar', dest='action', action='store_const', const=bar)
parser.add_argument('--woop')
parser.add_argument('--moop')
parsed_args = parser.parse_args()
if parsed_args.action is None:
parser.parse_args(['-h'])
parsed_args.action(parsed_args)
And then you can call it like:
% python /tmp/junk.py --foo
woop is None
% python /tmp/junk.py --foo --woop 8 --moop 17
woop is '8'
% python /tmp/junk.py --bar --woop 8 --moop 17
moop is '17'
If it's just a flag of run A or B, then a simple "store_true" argument should be fine.
>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--run_a_not_b', action='store_true')
_StoreTrueAction(option_strings=['--run_a_not_b'], dest='run_a_not_b', nargs=0, const=True, default=False, type=None, choices=None, help=None, metavar=None)
>>> parser.parse_args('--run_a_not_b')
>>> parsed_args = parser.parse_args('--run_a_not_b'.split())
>>> if parsed_args.run_a_not_b:
print "run a"
else:
print "run b"
run a
>>> parsed_args = parser.parse_args(''.split())
>>> if parsed_args.run_a_not_b:
print "run a"
else:
print "run b"
run b
Or if you want to actually pass in the name of the function to call, you can do it this (somewhat hackish) way:
>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--func_to_run', type=str)
_StoreAction(option_strings=['--func_to_run'], dest='func_to_run', nargs=None, const=None, default=None, type=<type 'str'>, choices=None, help=None, metavar=None)
>>> parsed_args = parser.parse_args('--func_to_run my_other_func'.split())
>>> parsed_args.func_to_run
'my_other_func'
>>> f = globals()[parsed_args.func_to_run]
<function my_other_func at 0x011F6670>
>>> f()
edit : to handle an integer argument, you would simply specify the type
>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--run_a_not_b', action='store_true')
>>> parser.add_argument('--func_arg', type=int)
>>> parsed_args = parser.parse_args('--run_a_not_b --arg 42'.split())
>>> parsed_args = parser.parse_args('--run_a_not_b --func_arg 42'.split())
>>> parsed_args
Namespace(func_arg=42, run_a_not_b=True)
So, you can simply get parsed_args.func_arg for the value if you choose in this example.
You might consider using fabric for this.