simple gist API wrapper with requests module

gist.py

#! /usr/bin/env python
"""
Simple wrapper around Github's gist HTTP API.

"""
import argparse
import logging
import requests
import json
from getpass import getuser, getpass

# static initialization
api = 'https://api.github.com'
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='fetches, publishes, and updates gists')
parser.add_argument('filenames', nargs='+', metavar='FILE')
parser.add_argument('-i', '-g', '--id', '--gist', dest='id', help='gist ID', metavar='ID', default=None)
parser.add_argument('-m', '-d', '--description', help='gist description', default=None)
parser.add_argument('-v', '--verbose', help='turn on verbose logging', action='store_true', default=False)

logger = logging.getLogger('gist')
logger.setLevel('WARNING')
logger.addHandler(logging.StreamHandler())


def gist(args, auth):
    """creates or updates a gist from the given files."""
    logger.debug('username: ' + auth[0])
    logger.debug(repr(args))

    description = args.description or args.filenames[0]
    files = {}
    
    # github expects a "files" objected keyed off of filename
    for filename in args.filenames:
        with open(filename, 'rb') as file:
            content = file.read()
            files[filename] = { "content": content }

    # prepare the full JSON object that github wants
    gist = json.dumps(dict(description=description, public=True, files=files), indent=4)
    logger.debug(gist)

    if args.id: # update existing gist
        url = api+'/gists/'+args.id
        logger.debug("PATCH TO " + url)
        response = requests.patch(url, data=gist, auth=auth)
    else: # create new gist
        url = api+'/gists'
        logger.debug("POST TO " + url)
        response = requests.post(url, data=gist, auth=auth)
    
    print_response(response)
    

def print_response(response):
    """print the URL of successfully updates gists or the full error message"""

    if response.status_code == 201:
        print response.headers['Location']
    elif response.ok:
        print response.json()['url']
    else:
        for key, value in response.headers.iteritems():
            print '{key}: {value}'.format(**locals())
        print
        try:
            print json.dumps(response.json(), indent=4)
        except ValueError:
            print response.text

if __name__ == '__main__':
    args = parser.parse_args()
    if args.verbose:
        logger.setLevel('DEBUG')
    auth = (getuser(), getpass())
    gist(args, auth)

This utility was used to post itself. META!