subcommand support for Python's optparse

subcommand.py

"""A simple addition to Python's optparse module supporting subcommands
like those found in the svn or hg CLIs.

To use it, instantiate the Subcommand class for every subcommand you
want to support. Each subcommand has a name, aliases, a help message,
and a separate OptionParser instance. Then pass a list of Subcommands
to the constructor of SubcommandsOptionParser to make a subcommand-
aware parser. Calling parse_args on that parser gives you the
subcommand invoked, the subcommand's arguments and options, and the
global options all in one fell swoop. See the smoke test at the bottom
of the file for an example.

The SubcommandsOptionParser automatically adds a "help" command for
getting global help or (with an argument) help on a specific
subcommand.

I wrote this because none of the more sophisticated command-line
parsers that support subcommands (argparse, cmdln, opster, pyopt,
optfunc, simpleopt). Many of them sport a bizarre, introspection- or
decorator-based API that doesn't lend itself well to extensibility.
argparse is the most promising (and will be included in the standard
library), but crucially lacks support for aliasing and has cosmetic
issues with the help output for subcommands.
"""

import optparse
import textwrap

class Subcommand(object):
    """A subcommand of a root command-line application that may be
    invoked by a SubcommandOptionParser.
    """
    def __init__(self, name, parser=None, help='', aliases=()):
        """Creates a new subcommand. name is the primary way to invoke
        the subcommand; aliases are alternate names. parser is an
        OptionParser responsible for parsing the subcommand's options.
        help is a short description of the command. If no parser is
        given, it defaults to a new, empty OptionParser.
        """
        self.name = name
        self.parser = parser or optparse.OptionParser()
        self.aliases = aliases
        self.help = help

class SubcommandsOptionParser(optparse.OptionParser):
    """A variant of OptionParser that parses subcommands and their
    arguments.
    """
    
    # A singleton command used to give help on other subcommands.
    _HelpSubcommand = Subcommand('help', optparse.OptionParser(),
        help='give detailed help on a specific sub-command',
        aliases=('?',))
    
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        """Create a new subcommand-aware option parser. All of the
        options to OptionParser.__init__ are supported in addition
        to subcommands, a sequence of Subcommand objects.
        """
        # The subcommand array, with the help command included.
        self.subcommands = list(kwargs.pop('subcommands', []))
        self.subcommands.append(self._HelpSubcommand)
        
        # A more helpful default usage.
        if 'usage' not in kwargs:
            kwargs['usage'] = """
  %prog COMMAND [ARGS...]
  %prog help COMMAND"""
        
        # Super constructor.
        optparse.OptionParser.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
        
        # Adjust the help-visible name of each subcommand.
        for subcommand in self.subcommands:
            subcommand.parser.prog = '%s %s' % \
                    (self.get_prog_name(), subcommand.name)
        
        # Our root parser needs to stop on the first unrecognized argument.  
        self.disable_interspersed_args()
    
    def add_subcommand(self, cmd):
        """Adds a Subcommand object to the parser's list of commands.
        """
        self.subcommands.append(cmd)
    
    # Add the list of subcommands to the help message.
    def format_help(self, formatter=None):
        # Get the original help message, to which we will append.
        out = optparse.OptionParser.format_help(self, formatter)
        if formatter is None:
            formatter = self.formatter
        
        # Subcommands header.
        result = ["\n"]
        result.append(formatter.format_heading('Commands'))
        formatter.indent()
        
        # Generate the display names (including aliases).
        # Also determine the help position.
        disp_names = []
        help_position = 0
        for subcommand in self.subcommands:
            name = subcommand.name
            if subcommand.aliases:
                name += ' (%s)' % ', '.join(subcommand.aliases)
            disp_names.append(name)
                
            # Set the help position based on the max width.
            proposed_help_position = len(name) + formatter.current_indent + 2
            if proposed_help_position <= formatter.max_help_position:
                help_position = max(help_position, proposed_help_position)        
        
        # Add each subcommand to the output.
        for subcommand, name in zip(self.subcommands, disp_names):
            # Lifted directly from optparse.py.
            name_width = help_position - formatter.current_indent - 2
            if len(name) > name_width:
                name = "%*s%s\n" % (formatter.current_indent, "", name)
                indent_first = help_position
            else:
                name = "%*s%-*s  " % (formatter.current_indent, "",
                                      name_width, name)
                indent_first = 0
            result.append(name)
            help_width = formatter.width - help_position
            help_lines = textwrap.wrap(subcommand.help, help_width)
            result.append("%*s%s\n" % (indent_first, "", help_lines[0]))
            result.extend(["%*s%s\n" % (help_position, "", line)
                           for line in help_lines[1:]])
        formatter.dedent()
        
        # Concatenate the original help message with the subcommand
        # list.
        return out + "".join(result)
    
    def _subcommand_for_name(self, name):
        """Return the subcommand in self.subcommands matching the
        given name. The name may either be the name of a subcommand or
        an alias. If no subcommand matches, returns None.
        """
        for subcommand in self.subcommands:
            if name == subcommand.name or \
               name in subcommand.aliases:
                return subcommand
        return None
    
    def parse_args(self, a=None, v=None):
        """Like OptionParser.parse_args, but returns these four items:
        - options: the options passed to the root parser
        - subcommand: the Subcommand object that was invoked
        - suboptions: the options passed to the subcommand parser
        - subargs: the positional arguments passed to the subcommand
        """  
        options, args = optparse.OptionParser.parse_args(self, a, v)
        
        if not args:
            # No command given.
            self.print_help()
            self.exit()
        else:
            cmdname = args.pop(0)
            subcommand = self._subcommand_for_name(cmdname)
            if not subcommand:
                self.error('unknown command ' + cmdname)
        
        suboptions, subargs = subcommand.parser.parse_args(args)

        if subcommand is self._HelpSubcommand:
            if subargs:
                # particular
                cmdname = subargs[0]
                helpcommand = self._subcommand_for_name(cmdname)
                helpcommand.parser.print_help()
                self.exit()
            else:
                # general
                self.print_help()
                self.exit()
        
        return options, subcommand, suboptions, subargs

# Smoke test.
if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Some subcommands.
    add_cmd = Subcommand('add',
        optparse.OptionParser(usage='%prog [OPTIONS] FILE...'),
        'add the specified files on the next commit')
    add_cmd.parser.add_option('-n', '--dry-run', dest='dryrun',
        help='do not perform actions, just print output',
        action='store_true')
        
    commit_cmd = Subcommand('commit',
        optparse.OptionParser(usage='%prog [OPTIONS] [FILE...]'),
        'commit the specified files or all outstanding changes',
        ('ci',))
    
    # A few dummy subcommands for testing the help layout algorithm.
    long_cmd = Subcommand('very_very_long_command_name',
        optparse.OptionParser(),
        'description should start on next line')
    long_help_cmd = Subcommand('somecmd', optparse.OptionParser(),
        'very long help text should wrap to the next line at which point '
        'the indentation should match the previous line',
        ('history',))
    
    # Set up the global parser and its options.
    parser = SubcommandsOptionParser(
        subcommands = (add_cmd, commit_cmd, long_cmd, long_help_cmd)
    )
    parser.add_option('-R', '--repository', dest='repository',
                      help='repository root directory or symbolic path name',
                      metavar='PATH')
    parser.add_option('-v', dest='verbose', help='enable additional output',
                      action='store_true')

    # Parse the global options and the subcommand options.
    options, subcommand, suboptions, subargs = parser.parse_args()

    # Here, we dispatch based on the identity of subcommand. Of course,
    # one could instead add a "func" property to all the subcommands
    # and here just call subcommand.func(suboptions, subargs) or
    # something.
    if subcommand is add_cmd:
        if subargs:
            print 'Adding files:', ', '.join(subargs)
            print 'Dry run:', ('yes' if suboptions.dryrun else 'no')
        else:
            # Note that calling error() on the subparser is the right
            # thing to do here. This way, the usage message reflects
            # the subcommand's usage specifically rather than just the
            # root command.
            subcommand.parser.error('need at least one file to add')
    elif subcommand is commit_cmd:
        if subargs:
            print 'Committing files:', ', '.join(subargs)
        else:
            print 'Committing all changes.'
    else:
        print '(dummy command)'
    
    # Show the global options.
    print 'Repository:', (options.repository if options.repository
                          else '(default)')
    print 'Verbose:', ('yes' if options.verbose else 'no')

Hi,

I really like these classes and would like to use them within a small CLI I am designing for a scientific program. Would you be able to put a license with this so that I can use it please?

Thanks,
David

I hereby dedicate this work to the public domain. Anyone may use this code for any purpose, with no need for attribution. I relinquish all assertion of copyright.