How to use getopt/OPTARG in Python? How to shift arguments if too many arguments (9) are given?

Question

How to use getopt/optarg in Python?

Answer 1

A google search would have helped. Have a look at the getopt and argparse modules in the standard library:

import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Process some integers.')
parser.add_argument('integers', metavar='N', type=int, nargs='+',
                   help='an integer for the accumulator')
parser.add_argument('--sum', dest='accumulate', action='store_const',
                   const=sum, default=max,
                   help='sum the integers (default: find the max)')

args = parser.parse_args()
print args.accumulate(args.integers)

Then run it as expected:

$ prog.py -h
usage: prog.py [-h] [--sum] N [N ...]

Process some integers.

positional arguments:
 N           an integer for the accumulator

optional arguments:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit
 --sum       sum the integers (default: find the max)

When run with the appropriate arguments, it prints either the sum or the max of the command-line integers:

$ prog.py 1 2 3 4
4

$ prog.py 1 2 3 4 --sum
10

This is straight from the standard library.