Python argparse: Make at least one argument required

Question

I\'ve been using argparse for a Python program that can -process, -upload or both:

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(de         


        

Answer 1

args = vars(parser.parse_args())
if not any(args.values()):
    parser.error('No arguments provided.')

Answer 2

The best way to do this is by using python inbuilt module add_mutually_exclusive_group.

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Log archiver arguments.')
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument('-process', action='store_true')
group.add_argument('-upload',  action='store_true')
args = parser.parse_args()

If you want only one argument to be selected by command line just use required=True as an argument for group

group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group(required=True)

Answer 3

If you require a python program to run with at least one parameter, add an argument that doesn't have the option prefix (- or -- by default) and set nargs=+ (Minimum of one argument required). The problem with this method I found is that if you do not specify the argument, argparse will generate a "too few arguments" error and not print out the help menu. If you don't need that functionality, here's how to do it in code:

import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Your program description')
parser.add_argument('command', nargs="+", help='describe what a command is')
args = parser.parse_args()

I think that when you add an argument with the option prefixes, nargs governs the entire argument parser and not just the option. (What I mean is, if you have an --option flag with nargs="+", then --option flag expects at least one argument. If you have option with nargs="+", it expects at least one argument overall.)

Answer 4

I know this is old as dirt, but the way to require one option but forbid more than one (XOR) is like this:

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group(required=True)
group.add_argument('-process', action='store_true')
group.add_argument('-upload',  action='store_true')
args = parser.parse_args()
print args

Output:

>opt.py  
usage: multiplot.py [-h] (-process | -upload)  
multiplot.py: error: one of the arguments -process -upload is required  

>opt.py -upload  
Namespace(process=False, upload=True)  

>opt.py -process  
Namespace(process=True, upload=False)  

>opt.py -upload -process  
usage: multiplot.py [-h] (-process | -upload)  
multiplot.py: error: argument -process: not allowed with argument -upload  

Answer 5

This achieves the purpose and this will also be relfected in the argparse autogenerated --help output, which is imho what most sane programmers want (also works with optional arguments):

parser.add_argument(
    'commands',
    nargs='+',                      # require at least 1
    choices=['process', 'upload'],  # restrict the choice
    help='commands to execute'
)

Official docs on this: https://docs.python.org/3/library/argparse.html#choices