6.20.3.6 Conflicts between options

parser.add_option("-n", "--dry-run", ...)
...
parser.add_option("-n", "--noisy", ...)

(This is even easier to do if you've defined your own OptionParser subclass with some standard options.)

On the assumption that this is usually a mistake, optparse raises an exception (OptionConflictError) by default when this happens. Since this is an easily-fixed programming error, you shouldn't try to catch this exception--fix your mistake and get on with life.

Sometimes, you want newer options to deliberately replace the option strings used by older options. You can achieve this by calling:

parser.set_conflict_handler("resolve")

Here's how it works: every time you add an option, optparse checks for conflicts with previously-added options. If it finds any, it invokes the conflict-handling mechanism you specify either to the OptionParser constructor:

parser = OptionParser(..., conflict_handler="resolve")

Here's an example: first, define an OptionParser set to resolve conflicts intelligently:

parser = OptionParser(conflict_handler="resolve")

parser.add_option("-n", "--dry-run", ..., help="original dry-run option")
...
parser.add_option("-n", "--noisy", ..., help="be noisy")

At this point, optparse detects that a previously-added option is already using the -n option string. Since

conflict_handler
== "resolve"

, it resolves the situation by removing -n from the earlier option's list of option strings. Now, --dry-run is the only way for the user to activate that option. If the user asks for help, the help message will reflect that, e.g.:

options:
  --dry-run     original dry-run option
  ...
  -n, --noisy   be noisy

Note that it's possible to whittle away the option strings for a previously-added option until there are none left, and the user has no way of invoking that option from the command-line. In that case, optparse removes that option completely, so it doesn't show up in help text or anywhere else. E.g. if we carry on with our existing OptionParser:

parser.add_option("--dry-run", ..., help="new dry-run option")

At this point, the first -n/--dry-run option is no longer accessible, so optparse removes it. If the user asks for help, they'll get something like this:

options:
  ...
  -n, --noisy   be noisy
  --dry-run     new dry-run option