Is there any way to instruct argparse (Python 2.7) to remove found arguments from sys.argv?

Question

I\'m fully midstream in the development process for what is turning into a fairly substantial Python 2.7 project. Right now I have all of my unittest classes lumped togethe

Answer 1

You want parse_known_args()

from __future__ import print_function
import argparse
import sys

def main():
    print(sys.argv)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()

    parser.add_argument('--all', action='store_true')
    parser.add_argument('--utils_base', action='store_true')

    args, left = parser.parse_known_args()

    sys.argv = sys.argv[:1]+left

    main()

Although, I must ask. Why are you writing your own test runner? The unittest module allows you to run specific sets of tests from the cli:

# run test from a spefiic class
$ python -m unittest module.tests.group.TestSpecific
# all possible options
$ python -m unittest --help
Usage: python -m unittest [options] [tests]

Options:
  -h, --help       Show this message
  -v, --verbose    Verbose output
  -q, --quiet      Minimal output
  -f, --failfast   Stop on first failure
  -c, --catch      Catch control-C and display results
  -b, --buffer     Buffer stdout and stderr during test runs

Examples:
  python -m unittest test_module               - run tests from test_module
  python -m unittest module.TestClass          - run tests from module.TestClass
  python -m unittest module.Class.test_method  - run specified test method

[tests] can be a list of any number of test modules, classes and test
methods.

Alternative Usage: python -m unittest discover [options]

Options:
  -v, --verbose    Verbose output
  -f, --failfast   Stop on first failure
  -c, --catch      Catch control-C and display results
  -b, --buffer     Buffer stdout and stderr during test runs
  -s directory     Directory to start discovery ('.' default)
  -p pattern       Pattern to match test files ('test*.py' default)
  -t directory     Top level directory of project (default to
                   start directory)

For test discovery all test modules must be importable from the top
level directory of the project.

If you need even more flexibility in grouping and running tests, I'd suggest looking at nosetest