6.3 Standard Module getopt

 

  This module helps scripts to parse the command line arguments in sys.argv. It supports the same conventions as the Unix getopt() function (including the special meanings of arguments of the form `-' and `--'). Long options similar to those supported by GNU software may be used as well via an optional third argument. It defines the function getopt.getopt(args, options [, long_options]) and the exception getopt.error.

The first argument to getopt() is the argument list passed to the script with its first element chopped off (i.e., sys.argv[1:]). The second argument is the string of option letters that the script wants to recognize, with options that require an argument followed by a colon (i.e., the same format that Unix getopt() uses). The third option, if specified, is a list of strings with the names of the long options which should be supported. The leading '--' characters should not be included in the option name. Options which require an argument should be followed by an equal sign ('='). The return value consists of two elements: the first is a list of option-and-value pairs; the second is the list of program arguments left after the option list was stripped (this is a trailing slice of the first argument). Each option-and-value pair returned has the option as its first element, prefixed with a hyphen (e.g., '-x'), and the option argument as its second element, or an empty string if the option has no argument. The options occur in the list in the same order in which they were found, thus allowing multiple occurrences. Long and short options may be mixed.

An example using only Unix style options:

>>> import getopt, string
>>> args = string.split('-a -b -cfoo -d bar a1 a2')
>>> args
['-a', '-b', '-cfoo', '-d', 'bar', 'a1', 'a2']
>>> optlist, args = getopt.getopt(args, 'abc:d:')
>>> optlist
[('-a', ''), ('-b', ''), ('-c', 'foo'), ('-d', 'bar')]
>>> args
['a1', 'a2']
>>>

Using long option names is equally easy:

>>> s = '--condition=foo --testing --output-file abc.def -x a1 a2'
>>> args = string.split(s)
>>> args
['--condition=foo', '--testing', '--output-file', 'abc.def', '-x', 'a1', 'a2']
>>> optlist, args = getopt.getopt(args, 'x', [
...     'condition=', 'output-file=', 'testing'])
>>> optlist
[('--condition', 'foo'), ('--testing', ''), ('--output-file', 'abc.def'), ('-x', '')]
>>> args
['a1', 'a2']
>>>

The exception getopt.error is raised when an unrecognized option is found in the argument list or when an option requiring an argument is given none. The argument to the exception is a string indicating the cause of the error. For long options, an argument given to an option which does not require one will also cause this exception to be raised.