blargs command line parsing

blargs provides easy command line parsing, as an alternative to argparse and optparse from Python's standard library. The main distinctions are:

• Cleaner, more minimal, and possibly more pythonic syntax.
• Support for arbitrarily complex dependency relationships. For example, argument A might require arguments B and C, while conflicting with D; or requiring argument E in the case that A is less than 10 or B is equal to the string 'wonderful!'.
• Emphasis on ease of use over configurability.

Blargs has been tested on Python2.6 to Python3.2 and PyPy.

Contributions are always welcome! You can help by submitting bugs here or forking on Github!

Installation

By Pip:

pip install blargs

Or by git:

git clone https://github.com/gyllstromk/blargs.git

License

BSD

Quick start

The preferred use of :class:`Parser` is via the with idiom, as follows:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.int('arg1')
    p.str('arg2')
    p.flag('arg3')

print 'Out of with statement; sys.argv is now parsed!'
print arg1, arg2, arg3

Note the use of locals is limited to the global scope; use a dictionary otherwise, getting argument values using the argument names as keys.

The user can now specify the following command lines:

python test.py --arg1=3          # either '=' ...
python test.py --arg1 3          # ...or space is allowed
python test.py --arg2 'hello'    #
python test.py --arg3            # no value is specified; implied true

The following command lines will be rejected:

python test.py --arg1    # no value specified for 'arg1'
python test.py --arg1 a  # 'a' does not parse to int
python test.py --arg3 a  # 'arg3' is a flag and does not accept a value

Additionally, users can query for help:

python test.py --help

To which the program will respond:

Arguments:
    --arg1 <int>
    --arg2 <option>
    --arg3
    --help/-h

Specifying arguments

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    # basic types
    p.str('string_arg')      # --string_arg='hello'
    p.int('int_arg')         # --int_arg 3
    p.float('float_arg')     # --float_arg 9.6
    p.flag('flag_arg')       # --flag_arg  (no argument passed)
    # complex types
    p.range('range_arg')     # --range_arg 1:2
    p.multiword('multi_arg') # --multi_arg hello world
    p.file('file_arg')       # --file_arg README.txt
    p.directory('dir_arg')   # --dir_arg /tmp/

On occasions you may need to refer to a created argument to specify relationships. This can be done at creation time, or by a lookup. The following:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    argument1 = p.str('arg1')

is equivalent to:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.str('arg1')
    argument1 = p['arg1']

Note that argument1 does not get the value of the parsed value; it represents the argument object itself.

Howto

Require an argument

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.str('required_arg').required()

If we try to not pass an argument for required_arg:

python test.py

We get the following:

No value passed for required_arg
usage: test.py [--required_arg <option>] [--help,-h]

Shorthand/alias

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.str('arg1').shorthand('a')

Either is acceptable:

python test.py --arg1 my_string
python test.py -a my_string

Note that we can specify any number of attributes by daisy-chaining calls. For example:

with Parser(locals()) as p:                 # 'arg1' has 'a' as alias and
    p.str('arg1').shorthand('a').required()  # is also required

Dependencies/Conflicts

Dependencies indicate that some argument is required if another one is specified, while conflicts indicate that two or more arguments may not be mutually specified.

with Parser(locals()) as p:     # if 'arg2' is specified,
    arg1 = p.str('arg1')        # so too must be 'arg3'
    p.str('arg2').requires(     # and 'arg1'. Note: if 'arg1'
        p.str('arg3'),          # is specified, this does not
        arg1,                   # mean 'arg2' must be
    )

    p.str('arg4').conflicts(    # if 'arg4' is specified, then
        arg1                    # 'arg1' may not be.
    )

A slightly more complex example:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.float('arg1').requires(   # if 'arg1' is specified
        p.int('arg2'),          # then both 'arg2'
        p.flag('arg3'),         # and 'arg3' must be too, however,
    ).conflicts(                # if it is specified,
        p.str('arg4'),          # then neither 'arg4'
        p.range('arg5')         # nor 'arg5' may be specified
    )

Allowing Duplicates/Multiple

Normally an argument may only be specified once by the user. This can be changed:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.str('arg1').multiple()

    print len(arg1)  # arg1 is list
    print arg1[0]

To use:

python test.py --arg1 hello --arg1 world

Now the value of arg1 is ['hello', 'world'].

Note: by indicating :meth:`Option.multiple`, the variable is stored as a list even if only one instance is specified by the user.

Indicating default values or environment variables

A default value means the argument will receive the value if not specified.

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.str('arg1').default('hello')

Both executions are equivalent:

python test.py --arg1 hello
python test.py

Additionally, we can specify that an argument should be drawn from the OS/shell environment if not provided at the command line:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.str('port').environment()

Now the following shell interactions are equivalent:

python test.py --port 5000
export PORT=5000; python test.py

Currently, this works by setting the default value to the environment value. Consequently, the default and environment arguments currently conflict (or, specifically, override one another).

Allowing no argument label

If we want an argument to be parsed even without a label:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.str('arg1').unspecified_default()
    p.str('arg2')

Now, an argument without a label will be saved to arg1:

python test.py hello  # arg1 = 'hello'
python test.py --arg2 world hello   # arg1 = 'hello', arg2 = 'world'

Note that to avoid ambiguity, only one argument type may be an :meth:`Option.unspecified_default`.

Files

Files and directories can be easily specified:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.file('input_file')
    p.file('output_file', mode='w')
    p.directory('src_dir')
    p.directory('dest_dir', create=True)

When parsed, input_file and output_file will both be open file pointers. src_dir is returned as the user-provided str, and will be checked to ensure that the directory provided by the user is in fact an existing, valid directory, while dest_dir will be created if it does not exist. Both

Creating your own types

It is possible to create your own types using the cast function, in which you specify a function that is run on the value at parse time. Let's say we want the user to be able to pass a comma-separated list of float values, or a space-delimited list of int values:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.str('floatlist').cast(lambda x: [float(val) for val in x.split(',')])
    p.multiword('intlist').cast(lambda x: [int(val) for val in x.split()])

A sample command line:

python test.py --floatlist 1.2,3.9,8.6 --intlist 1 9 2

We now can access these:

>>> print floatlist, intlist
... [1.2, 3.9, 8.6], [1, 9, 2]

Conditions

Conditions extend the concept of dependencies and conflicts with conditionals.

if

Argument must be specified if condition:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    arg1 = p.int('arg1')
    arg2 = p.float('arg2').if_(arg1 > 10) # 'arg2' must be specified if
    # 'arg1' > 10
    p.float('arg3').if_(arg1.or_(arg2))   # 'arg3' must be specified if
    # 'arg1' or 'arg2' is

unless

Argument must be specified :meth:`Option.unless` condition.

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    arg1 = p.int('arg1')
    p.float('arg2').unless(arg1 > 10)    # 'arg2' must be specified if
    # 'arg1' <= 10

requires

We described :py:meth:`Option.requires` previously, but here we show that it also works with conditional expressions.

If argument is specified, then condition must be true;

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    arg1 = p.int('arg1')
    p.float('arg2').requires(arg1 < 20)  # if 'arg2' specified, 'arg1' must
    # be < 20

and/or

Build conditions via logical operators :meth:`and_` and :meth:`or_`:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    arg1 = p.int('arg1')
    p.float('arg2').unless((0 < arg1).and_(arg1 < 10))  # 'arg2' is required
    # unless 0 < arg1 < 10

    p.float('arg3').if_((arg1 < 0).or_(arg1 > 10))      # 'arg3' is required
    # if 'arg1' < 0 or
    # 'arg1' > 10

Aggregate calls

Aggregate calls enable the indication of behavior for a set of arguments at once.

At least one

Require at least one (up to all) of the subsequent arguments:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.at_least_one(
        p.str('arg1'),
        p.str('arg2'),
        p.str('arg3')
    )

Mutual exclusion

Only one of the arguments can be specified:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.only_one_if_any(
    p.str('arg1'),
    p.str('arg2'),
    p.str('arg3')
    )

All if any

If any of the arguments is be specified, all of them must be:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.all_if_any(
    p.str('arg1'),
    p.str('arg2'),
    p.str('arg3')
    )

Require one

One and only one of the arguments must be specified:

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.require_one(
        p.str('arg1'),
        p.str('arg2'),
        p.str('arg3')
    )

Complex Dependencies

with Parser(locals()) as p:
    p.at_least_one(            # at least one of
        p.only_one_if_any(     # 'arg1', 'arg2', and/or 'arg3'
            p.int('arg1'),     # must be specified, but
            p.flag('arg2'),    # 'arg1' and 'arg2' may not
        ),                     # both be specified
        p.str('arg3'),
    )

with Parser(locals() as p:
    p.require_one(
        p.all_if_any(
            p.only_one_if_any(
                p.flag('a'),
                p.flag('b'),
            ),
            p.flag('c'),
        ),
        p.only_one_if_any(
            p.all_if_any(
                p.flag('d'),
                p.flag('e'),
            ),
            p.flag('f'),
        ),
    )

Accepts these combinations:

a, c; b, c; d, e; f

Customizing

Indicating label style

By default, -- denotes a full argument while - denotes the shorthand/alias variant. This can be replaced via :py:meth:`Parser.set_single_prefix` and :meth:`Parser.set_double_prefix`.

Setting help function

The :meth:`Parser.set_help_prefix` allows you to specify the content that appears before the argument list when users trigger the --help command.

API

Exceptions