boilerplate for argparse python script

argparse.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
from __future__ import print_function
import os
import sys
import re
import gzip
import bz2
import argparse
import logging

# logging
logging.basicConfig(format='%(asctime)s - %(message)s', level=logging.DEBUG)

# argparse
class CustomFormatter(argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter,
                      argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter):
    pass

desc = 'Template python script'
epi = """DESCRIPTION:
* placeholder1
* placehodler2
"""
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=desc, epilog=epi,
                                 formatter_class=CustomFormatter)
parser.add_argument('input_file', type=str,
                    help='Input file')
parser.add_argument('--param', type=str, default='test',
                    help='Test parameter')
parser.add_argument('--version', action='version', version='0.0.1')

# functions
def _open(infile, mode='rb'):
    """
    Openning of input, regardless of compression
    """
    if infile.endswith('.bz2'):
        return bz2.open(infile, mode)
    elif infile.endswith('.gz'):
        return gzip.open(infile, mode)
    else:
        return open(infile)

def _decode(x):
    """
    Decoding input, if needed
    """
    try:
        x = x.decode('utf-8')
    except AttributeError:
        pass
    return x

## main interface function
def main(args):
    pass

## script main
if __name__ == '__main__':
    args = parser.parse_args()
    main(args)