simple-cli-args 1.0

An enhancement of argparse package for its simplest usages

simple-cli-args

A python main method decorator.
An enhancement of the argparse package for its simplest usages.
Requires python 3.6 or higher.

The ordinary arguments become positional, the arguments with default value become named argument for the CLI, with a possibility of abbreviations, as argparse provides it.
Help option (-h or --help) is automatically generated with its text taken from the docstrings.

Install

Using pip

pip install simple_cli_args

or, with your intended python command in place of python3

python3 -m pip install simple_cli_args

Using setuptools

Simply issue in the main directory of the cloned git repository:

./setup.py install

Usage

Assume the content of my_cli.py is:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from simple_cli_args import cli_args

@cli_args
def main(apple, banana, cucumber='green'):
    print("Our fruits are:", apple, banana, cucumber)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()  # without arguments given, those will be read from the CLI

Then, we get the following printouts:

$ ./my_cli.py red yellow
Our fruits are: red yellow green

$ ./my_cli.py red yellow --cucumber=purple
Our fruits are: red yellow purple

$ ./my_cli.py red yellow -c nice
Our fruits are: red yellow nice

$ ./my_cli.py red
usage: my_cli.py [-h] [--cucumber | -c  CUCUMBER] apple banana
my_cli.py: error: the following arguments are required: banana

$ ./my_cli.py --help
usage: my_cli.py [-h] [--cucumber | -c  CUCUMBER] apple banana

positional arguments:
  apple
  banana

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --cucumber | -c  CUCUMBER
                        default: green

Decorate a main class

If main functionality is built into a class, the decorator can be used for its contructor __init__ method, as well as for the class itself, like in the example below.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from simple_cli_args import cli_args

@cli_args
class Main:
    def __init__(self, apple, banana, cucumber='green'):
        self.fruits = apple, banana, cucumber
    def show(self):
        print("Our fruits are:", *self.fruits)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main = Main()  # without arguments given, those will be read from the CLI
    main.show()