arghandle 1.0.0

A simple, clean alternative to argparse

ArgHandle

A simple, lightweight alternative to argparse. No confusion, no boilerplate, just clean argument handling for your CLI tools.

Built because argparse is overkill for most scripts. ArgHandle gives you exactly what you need: match args, print help, done.

Installation

pip install arghandle

Quick Start

from arghandle import ArgHandle

cli = ArgHandle()
cli.ProgramName("mytool")

cli.RegisterToHelp("version", ["--version", "-v"], HelpMsg="Prints the version and exit")
cli.RegisterToHelp("build", ["build"], HelpMsg="Build the project")

cli.PrintOnNoArgs("No arguments provided. Use --help or -h for usage.", Exit=True)
cli.HandleHelp()

if cli.IsArgInActualArgs("--version") or cli.IsArgInActualArgs("-v"):
    raise SystemExit("mytool v1.0.0\n")

if cli.IsArgInActualArgs("build"):
    print("Building...")

Running mytool --help prints:

[mytool] --help called:
  [--help, -h]: Prints this help message and exit
  [--version, -v]: Prints the version and exit
  [build]: Build the project

API

ArgHandle()

Main class. Instantiate once at the start of your program.

cli = ArgHandle()

---

ProgramName(string: str)

Sets the program name shown in the help header.

cli.ProgramName("mytool")

---

RegisterToHelp(Argument, RepresentingCommands, *, HelpMsg)

Registers a command to the --help output.

• Argument - internal name for the command
• RepresentingCommands - list of flags/commands (e.g. ["--version", "-v"])
• HelpMsg - description shown in help

Returns one of: Registered, NotRegistered, NoKwargs, OverlimitKwargs

cli.RegisterToHelp("version", ["--version", "-v"], HelpMsg="Prints the version and exit")

---

HandleHelp(Exit=True)

Checks if --help or -h is in args and prints the help screen. Exits by default.

cli.HandleHelp()

---

PrintOnNoArgs(string, Exit=False)

Prints a message if no arguments are passed. Optionally exits.

cli.PrintOnNoArgs("No arguments provided.", Exit=True)

---

IsArgInActualArgs(String) -> bool

Returns True if the string is present anywhere in sys.argv.

if cli.IsArgInActualArgs("build"):
    ...

---

IsArgMatch(String, AtIndex) -> bool

Returns True if the string matches the arg at a specific index.

if cli.IsArgMatch("build", 1):
    ...

---

ArgCount() -> int

Returns the total number of arguments including the script name.

print(cli.ArgCount())

---

Return Types

RegisterToHelp returns one of these custom types to indicate the result:

Type	Meaning
Registered	Successfully registered
NotRegistered	Empty argument or command list
NoKwargs	No HelpMsg provided
OverlimitKwargs	More than one kwarg passed

---

Real World Example

ArgHandle was built as part of AutoBuild, a Make-like build system with its own .abuild syntax. Check it out to see ArgHandle in action in a real project.

License

GPLv3 - see LICENSE for details.