helpgen 0.1

Argparse frontend library to help making software usage message

helpgen helps you to make easily help/usage message of command line tools.

Example

Next is a short example of how to use the library :

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys

from helpgen.decorators import Action
from helpgen.parser import ActionParser


@Action('test')
def action_test():
    """run a test"""

    print("I AM A TEST \o/")


@Action('hello', args=['word'])
def action_hello(word):
    """display a word"""

    print("The word is : %s" % (word,))


def main():
    parser = ActionParser(description="helpgen test script")
    parser.compile()

    try:
        parser.process()
    except:
        return 1
    else:
        return 0

if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(main())

This peace of code will produce these help messages :

• generic help message:

$ ./test.py -h
usage: test.py [-h] {test,hello} ...

helpgen test script

positional arguments:
  {test,hello}
    test        run a test
    hello       display a word

optional arguments:
  -h, --help    show this help message and exit

• help message for test sub command:

$ ./test.py test -h
usage: test.py test [-h]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit

• help message for hello sub command:

$ ./test.py hello -h
usage: test.py hello [-h] word

positional arguments:
  word

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit

• and, it works fine :

$ ./test.py test
I AM A TEST \o/
$ ./test.py hello "\_o<~ KOIN"
The word is : \_o<~ KOIN