Setting options from environment variables when using argparse

Question

I have a script which has certain options that can either be passed on the command line, or from environment variables. The CLI should take precedence if both are present, a

Answer 1

I use this pattern frequently enough that I have packaged a simple action class to handle it:

import argparse
import os

class EnvDefault(argparse.Action):
    def __init__(self, envvar, required=True, default=None, **kwargs):
        if not default and envvar:
            if envvar in os.environ:
                default = os.environ[envvar]
        if required and default:
            required = False
        super(EnvDefault, self).__init__(default=default, required=required, 
                                         **kwargs)

    def __call__(self, parser, namespace, values, option_string=None):
        setattr(namespace, self.dest, values)

I can then call this from my code with:

import argparse
from envdefault import EnvDefault

parser=argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(
    "-u", "--url", action=EnvDefault, envvar='URL', 
    help="Specify the URL to process (can also be specified using URL environment variable)")
args=parser.parse_args()

Answer 2

One option is to check whether the environment variable is set, and to modify the calls to add_argument accordingly e.g.

import argparse
import os

parser=argparse.ArgumentParser()
if 'CVSWEB_URL' in os.environ:
    cvsopt = { 'default': os.environ['CVSWEB_URL'] }
else:
    cvsopt = { 'required': True }
parser.add_argument(
    "-u", "--cvsurl", help="Specify url (overrides CVSWEB_URL environment variable)", 
    **cvsopt)
args=parser.parse_args()

Answer 3

Here's a relatively simple (looks longer because it's well-commented) yet complete solution that avoids kludging default by using the namespace argument of parse_args. By default it parses environment variables no differently than command-line arguments though that can easily be changed.

import shlex

# Notes:
#   * Based on https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/
#               15bde92e47e824369ee71e30b07f1624396f5cdc/
#               Lib/argparse.py
#   * Haven't looked into handling "required" for mutually exclusive groups
#   * Probably should make new attributes private even though it's ugly.
class EnvArgParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
    # env_k:    The keyword to "add_argument" as well as the attribute stored
    #           on matching actions.
    # env_f:    The keyword to "add_argument". Defaults to "env_var_parse" if
    #           not provided.
    # env_i:    Basic container type to identify unfilled arguments.
    env_k = "env_var"
    env_f = "env_var_parse"
    env_i = type("env_i", (object,), {})

    def add_argument(self, *args, **kwargs):
        map_f = (lambda m,k,f=None,d=False:
                    (k, k in m, m.pop(k,f) if d else m.get(k,f)))

        env_k = map_f(kwargs, self.env_k, d=True, f="")
        env_f = map_f(kwargs, self.env_f, d=True, f=self.env_var_parse)

        if env_k[1] and not isinstance(env_k[2], str):
            raise ValueError(f"Parameter '{env_k[0]}' must be a string.")

        if env_f[1] and not env_k[1]:
            raise ValueError(f"Parameter '{env_f[0]}' requires '{env_k[0]}'.")

        if env_f[1] and not callable(env_f[2]):
            raise ValueError(f"Parameter '{env_f[0]}' must be callable.")

        action = super().add_argument(*args, **kwargs)

        if env_k[1] and not action.option_strings:
            raise ValueError(f"Positional parameters may not specify '{env_k[0]}'.")

        # We can get the environment now:
        #   * We need to know now if the keys exist anyway
        #   * os.environ is static
        env_v = map_f(os.environ, env_k[2], f="")

        # Examples:
        # env_k:
        #   ("env_var", True,  "FOO_KEY")
        # env_v:
        #   ("FOO_KEY", False, "")
        #   ("FOO_KEY", True,  "FOO_VALUE")
        #
        # env_k:
        #   ("env_var", False, "")
        # env_v:
        #   (""       , False, "")
        #   ("",        True,  "RIDICULOUS_VALUE")

        # Add the identifier to all valid environment variable actions for
        # later access by i.e. the help formatter.
        if env_k[1]:
            if env_v[1] and action.required:
                action.required = False
            i = self.env_i()
            i.a = action
            i.k = env_k[2]
            i.f = env_f[2]
            i.v = env_v[2]
            i.p = env_v[1]
            setattr(action, env_k[0], i)

        return action

    # Overriding "_parse_known_args" is better than "parse_known_args":
    #   * The namespace will already have been created.
    #   * This method runs in an exception handler.
    def _parse_known_args(self, arg_strings, namespace):
        """precedence: cmd args > env var > preexisting namespace > defaults"""

        for action in self._actions:
            if action.dest is argparse.SUPPRESS:
                continue
            try:
                i = getattr(action, self.env_k)
            except AttributeError:
                continue
            if not i.p:
                continue
            setattr(namespace, action.dest, i)

        namespace, arg_extras = super()._parse_known_args(arg_strings, namespace)

        for k,v in vars(namespace).copy().items():
            # Setting "env_i" on the action is more effective than using an
            # empty unique object() and mapping namespace attributes back to
            # actions.
            if isinstance(v, self.env_i):
                fv = v.f(v.a, v.k, v.v, arg_extras)
                if fv is argparse.SUPPRESS:
                    delattr(namespace, k)
                else:
                    # "_parse_known_args::take_action" checks for action
                    # conflicts. For simplicity we don't.
                    v.a(self, namespace, fv, v.k)

        return (namespace, arg_extras)

    def env_var_parse(self, a, k, v, e):
        # Use shlex, yaml, whatever.
        v = shlex.split(v)

        # From "_parse_known_args::consume_optional".
        n = self._match_argument(a, "A"*len(v))

        # From the main loop of "_parse_known_args". Treat additional
        # environment variable arguments just like additional command-line
        # arguments (which will eventually raise an exception).
        e.extend(v[n:])

        return self._get_values(a, v[:n])


# Derived from "ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter".
class EnvArgHelpFormatter(argparse.HelpFormatter):
    """Help message formatter which adds environment variable keys to
    argument help.
    """

    env_k = EnvArgParser.env_k

    # This is supposed to return a %-style format string for "_expand_help".
    # Since %-style strings don't support attribute access we instead expand
    # "env_k" ourselves.
    def _get_help_string(self, a):
        h = super()._get_help_string(a)
        try:
            i = getattr(a, self.env_k)
        except AttributeError:
            return h
        s = f" ({self.env_k}: {i.k})"
        if s not in h:
            h += s
        return h


# An example mix-in.
class DefEnvArgHelpFormatter\
        ( EnvArgHelpFormatter
        , argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter
        ):
    pass

Example program:

parser = EnvArgParser\
        ( prog="Test Program"
        , formatter_class=DefEnvArgHelpFormatter
        )

parser.add_argument\
        ( '--bar'
        , required=True
        , env_var="BAR"
        , type=int
        , nargs="+"
        , default=22
        , help="Help message for bar."
        )

parser.add_argument\
        ( 'baz'
        , type=int
        )

args = parser.parse_args()
print(args)

Example program output:

$ BAR="1 2 3 '45  ' 6 7" ./envargparse.py 123
Namespace(bar=[1, 2, 3, 45, 6, 7], baz=123)

$ ./envargparse.py -h
usage: Test Program [-h] --bar BAR [BAR ...] baz

positional arguments:
  baz

optional arguments:
  -h, --help           show this help message and exit
  --bar BAR [BAR ...]  Help message for bar. (default: 22) (env_var: BAR)

Answer 4

You can use OptionParser()

from optparse import OptionParser

def argument_parser(self, parser):
    parser.add_option('--foo', dest="foo", help="foo", default=os.environ.get('foo', None))
    parser.add_option('--bar', dest="bar", help="bar", default=os.environ.get('bar', None))
    return(parser.parse_args())

parser = OptionParser()
(options, args) = argument_parser(parser)
foo = options.foo
bar = options.bar
print("foo: {}".format(foo))
print("bar: {}".format(bar))

shell:

export foo=1
export bar=2
python3 script.py

Answer 5

ConfigArgParse adds support for environment variables to argparse, so you can do things like:

p = configargparse.ArgParser()
p.add('-m', '--moo', help='Path of cow', env_var='MOO_PATH') 
options = p.parse_args()

Answer 6

You can set the default= of the argument to a .get() of os.environ with the environment variable you want to grab.

You can also pass a 2nd argument in the .get() call, which is the default value if .get() doesn't find an environment variable by that name (by default .get() returns None in that case).

import argparse
import os

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='test')
parser.add_argument('--url', default=os.environ.get('URL'))

args = parser.parse_args()
if not args.url:
    exit(parser.print_usage())