Python 2.7 argparse: How to nest optional mutally exclusive arguments properly?

Question

My Program should include the following options, properly parsed by argparse:

purely optional: [-h, --help] and [-v, --version]
mutually exclusive: [-f FILE, --file FILE] and [-u URL, --url URL]
optional if --url was chosen: [-V, --verbose]
required if either --file or --url was chosen: [-F, --format FORMAT]

The desired usage pattern would be:

prog.py [-h] [-v] [-f FILE (-F FORMAT) | -u URL [-V] (-F FORMAT) ]

with the -F requirement applying to both members of the mutually exclusive group.
Not sure if it rather be a positional.

So it should be possible to run:

prog.py -u "http://foo.bar" -V -F csv

and the parser screaming in case i forgot the -F (as he's supposed to).

What i've done so far:

parser = ArgumentParser(decription='foo')

group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()    
group.add_argument('-f','--file', nargs=1, type=str, help='')
group.add_argument('-u','--url', nargs=1, type=str, help='')    

parser.add_argument('-V','--verbose', action='store_true', default=False, help='')
parser.add_argument('-F','--format', nargs=1, type=str, help='')

Since it has a 'vanilla mode' to run without command line arguments, all arguments must be optional.

How can i implement points 3. and 4. into my code?

EDIT:
I tried -f and -u as subparsers, as described here, but subcommands seem to be treated like positionals and the parser gives me an error: too few arguments if i run it without arguments.

have you considered docopt? The disadvantage is that it allows option values to start with - e.g., "-f a -F -u" (the format is "-u" here) — jfs
Is one of -f and -u required? If so, I'm picturing a solution involving subcommands or positional arguments. — chepner
@chepner: no, they aren't. i want the program to also run without args and options, so it will start a user dialog or even a GUI — rypel
@J.F.Sebastian: docopt looks great, i'll dig into it and report if it suits my needs — rypel

hpaulj hpaulj · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-26T03:07:01

Use of nargs=2 and tuple metavar approximates your goal

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument('-f','--file', nargs=2, metavar=('FILE','FORMAT'))
group.add_argument('-u','--url', nargs=2, metavar=('URL','FORMAT'))
parser.add_argument('-V','--verbose', action='store_true',help='optional with url')

which produces:

usage: PROG [-h] [-f FILE FORMAT | -u URL FORMAT] [-V]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -f FILE FORMAT, --file FILE FORMAT
  -u URL FORMAT, --url URL FORMAT
  -V, --verbose         optional with url

This requires the format along with filename or url, it just doesn't require the -F. As others noted -V can be ignored in the -f case.

I tried -f and -u as subparsers, as described here, but subcommands seem to be treated like positionals and the parser gives me an error: too few arguments if i run it without arguments.

In the latest version(s) subcommands are no longer treated as required positionals. This was, as best I can tell, a side effect of changing the error message to be more informative. Instead of _parse_known_args doing a:

    if positionals:
        self.error(_('too few arguments'))

it scans _actions to see which are required, and then lists them by name in the error message. This is discussed in http://bugs.python.org/issue9253 . I know this change is in development (3.4), and may also be in 3.3.

Python 2.7 argparse: How to nest optional mutally exclusive arguments properly?

2 Answers