action 1.4.4

A command-line parser you won't hate

This library draws a parallel between command line args and function args in Python. Positionals get passed to regular function arguments, and options or flags are mapped to keyword arguments.

For example, this command invocation:

$ package install -u ffmpeg -v

Could be translated to this function call:

package.install('ffmpeg', upgrade=True, verbose=1)

This library does the bridging automatically using information supplied in form of decorators and type annotations. To make a function accessible as a command-line action, decorate it with action:

import sys
import action

@action
def install(package_name, *, upgrade: action.Flag = False, verbose: action.Count = 0):
    """ Do the work
    """

if __name__ == '__main__':
    sys.exit(action.execute(sys.argv[1:]))

All other exported symbols are described below.

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@action

The main decorator which is used to make actions from functions. It takes a single function as an input and inspects its signature.

The name of the command being created is drawn from the name of original function.

All arguments before splat are counted as positionals, and those going after are options or flags.

Configuration through annotations

Client code could alter how certain arguments are treated and presented by annotating its arguments.

One way to do so is to supply a constructor as an annotation:

@action
def add(x: int, y: int):
    print(x + y)

That constructor shall be called upon execution to coerce types before passing arguments to the action invoked.

Positionals only support this kind of annotations.

Options, on the other hand, use callable annotations differently. Each option or flag could occur many times, therefore that behaviour should be covered by corresponding annotation. There are some sane defaults come already packaged.

Flag

Denotes whether some condition is truthy. Could be specified any number of times on command line. First occurrence sets the value to True. Subsequent occurrences have no effect:

@action
def add(x: int, y: int, *, pad: action.Flag = False):
    result = x + y
    format = '{}'
    if pad:
        format = '{:04}'
    print(format.format(result))

Count

Initially is None. On first occurrence sets to one, on each subsequent occurrence increments by one:

@action
def add(x: int, y: int, *, verbose: action.Count = 0):
    result = x + y

    if verbose > 3:
        print('augend:', x)
        print('addend:', y)
        print('sum:   ', result)
        print()
    elif verbose > 0:
        print('{} + {} = {}'.format(result))
    else:
        print(result)

Key

Generic value specified as a command-line option:

@action
def walk(*, depth: action.Key('depth', type=int)):
    ...

Key constructor has three arguments: short, long and type. One of short or long is required. type is str by default.

any callable

There is also a shorthand notation for specifying a Key:

@action
def walk(*, depth: int):
    ...

Short and long names shall be deduced from the argument name.

(short, long, type) triple

Another shorthand for Key allows to specify short and long names manually:

@action
def walk(*, depth: ('r', 'depth', int)):
    ...

Option abstract base

On a low level, to know a value for an option, the command line processor performs a folding operation over all occurrences of a certain option. Therefore, to have fine-grained control over the argument parsing process, one could subclass action.Option to use it instead of prepackaged annotations for options. Subclass should override call method to take two arguments: the old value and an option body. That call method could either return a new value or throw an exception to stop command line processing right away. If call method returns a value, that value shall be passed as old value on the next call.

@action.default

The command line processor selects an action whose name matches the first positional. If there is no such action registered, the command line processor attempts to invoke the special action marked as default:

@action.default
@action
def install(package):
    ...

# `./prog.py install ffmpeg` shall invoke `install('ffmpeg')`
# and `./prog.py ffmpeg` shall still invoke `install('ffmpeg')`

This decorator could also be used if the program has a single action:

@action.default
def list_directory():
    ...

action.execute

Look up a previously registered action whose name matches first positional from command line, match command-line arguments to selected action arguments and invoke that action.

The first positional argument is hidden from the command invoked.

action.execute never calls os.exit, so it could be used in an interactive prompt.

action.context

If you want an isolated argument parser to avoid modification of module-wide state, you could instantiate another Action with this method.

Normally, an Action object is constructed in place of action module when importing.

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Coded with Love.