Edit File: getopt.html
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>15.6. getopt — C-style parser for command line options — Python 2.7.5 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/default.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript"> var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = { URL_ROOT: '../', VERSION: '2.7.5', COLLAPSE_INDEX: false, FILE_SUFFIX: '.html', HAS_SOURCE: true }; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/underscore.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/sidebar.js"></script> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search within Python 2.7.5 documentation" href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/> <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" /> <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" /> <link rel="top" title="Python 2.7.5 documentation" href="../index.html" /> <link rel="up" title="15. Generic Operating System Services" href="allos.html" /> <link rel="next" title="15.7. logging — Logging facility for Python" href="logging.html" /> <link rel="prev" title="15.5. optparse — Parser for command line options" href="optparse.html" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="../_static/py.png" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/copybutton.js"></script> </head> <body> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" accesskey="I">index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="logging.html" title="15.7. logging — Logging facility for Python" accesskey="N">next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="optparse.html" title="15.5. optparse — Parser for command line options" accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a> »</li> <li> <a href="../index.html">Python 2.7.5 documentation</a> » </li> <li><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li><a href="allos.html" accesskey="U">15. Generic Operating System Services</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body"> <div class="section" id="module-getopt"> <span id="getopt-c-style-parser-for-command-line-options"></span><h1>15.6. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-getopt" title="getopt: Portable parser for command line options; support both short and long option names."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">getopt</span></tt></a> — C-style parser for command line options<a class="headerlink" href="#module-getopt" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <p><strong>Source code:</strong> <a class="reference external" href="http://hg.python.org/cpython/file/2.7/Lib/getopt.py">Lib/getopt.py</a></p> <hr class="docutils" /> <div class="admonition note"> <p class="first admonition-title">Note</p> <p class="last">The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-getopt" title="getopt: Portable parser for command line options; support both short and long option names."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">getopt</span></tt></a> module is a parser for command line options whose API is designed to be familiar to users of the C <tt class="xref c c-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getopt()</span></tt> function. Users who are unfamiliar with the C <tt class="xref c c-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getopt()</span></tt> function or who would like to write less code and get better help and error messages should consider using the <a class="reference internal" href="argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">argparse</span></tt></a> module instead.</p> </div> <p>This module helps scripts to parse the command line arguments in <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.argv</span></tt>. It supports the same conventions as the Unix <tt class="xref c c-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getopt()</span></tt> function (including the special meanings of arguments of the form ‘<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-</span></tt>‘ and ‘<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--</span></tt>‘). Long options similar to those supported by GNU software may be used as well via an optional third argument.</p> <p>This module provides two functions and an exception:</p> <dl class="function"> <dt id="getopt.getopt"> <tt class="descclassname">getopt.</tt><tt class="descname">getopt</tt><big>(</big><em>args</em>, <em>options</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>long_options</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#getopt.getopt" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Parses command line options and parameter list. <em>args</em> is the argument list to be parsed, without the leading reference to the running program. Typically, this means <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.argv[1:]</span></tt>. <em>options</em> is the string of option letters that the script wants to recognize, with options that require an argument followed by a colon (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">':'</span></tt>; i.e., the same format that Unix <tt class="xref c c-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getopt()</span></tt> uses).</p> <div class="admonition note"> <p class="first admonition-title">Note</p> <p class="last">Unlike GNU <tt class="xref c c-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getopt()</span></tt>, after a non-option argument, all further arguments are considered also non-options. This is similar to the way non-GNU Unix systems work.</p> </div> <p><em>long_options</em>, if specified, must be a list of strings with the names of the long options which should be supported. The leading <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'--'</span></tt> characters should not be included in the option name. Long options which require an argument should be followed by an equal sign (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'='</span></tt>). Optional arguments are not supported. To accept only long options, <em>options</em> should be an empty string. Long options on the command line can be recognized so long as they provide a prefix of the option name that matches exactly one of the accepted options. For example, if <em>long_options</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">['foo',</span> <span class="pre">'frob']</span></tt>, the option <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--fo</span></tt> will match as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--foo</span></tt>, but <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--f</span></tt> will not match uniquely, so <a class="reference internal" href="#getopt.GetoptError" title="getopt.GetoptError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">GetoptError</span></tt></a> will be raised.</p> <p>The return value consists of two elements: the first is a list of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">(option,</span> <span class="pre">value)</span></tt> pairs; the second is the list of program arguments left after the option list was stripped (this is a trailing slice of <em>args</em>). Each option-and-value pair returned has the option as its first element, prefixed with a hyphen for short options (e.g., <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'-x'</span></tt>) or two hyphens for long options (e.g., <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'--long-option'</span></tt>), 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.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="function"> <dt id="getopt.gnu_getopt"> <tt class="descclassname">getopt.</tt><tt class="descname">gnu_getopt</tt><big>(</big><em>args</em>, <em>options</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>long_options</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#getopt.gnu_getopt" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>This function works like <a class="reference internal" href="#module-getopt" title="getopt: Portable parser for command line options; support both short and long option names."><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getopt()</span></tt></a>, except that GNU style scanning mode is used by default. This means that option and non-option arguments may be intermixed. The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-getopt" title="getopt: Portable parser for command line options; support both short and long option names."><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getopt()</span></tt></a> function stops processing options as soon as a non-option argument is encountered.</p> <p>If the first character of the option string is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'+'</span></tt>, or if the environment variable <span class="target" id="index-0"></span><tt class="xref std std-envvar docutils literal"><span class="pre">POSIXLY_CORRECT</span></tt> is set, then option processing stops as soon as a non-option argument is encountered.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.3.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="exception"> <dt id="getopt.GetoptError"> <em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">getopt.</tt><tt class="descname">GetoptError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#getopt.GetoptError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>This 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. The attributes <tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">msg</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">opt</span></tt> give the error message and related option; if there is no specific option to which the exception relates, <tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">opt</span></tt> is an empty string.</p> <p class="versionchanged"> <span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 1.6: </span>Introduced <a class="reference internal" href="#getopt.GetoptError" title="getopt.GetoptError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">GetoptError</span></tt></a> as a synonym for <a class="reference internal" href="#getopt.error" title="getopt.error"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">error</span></tt></a>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="exception"> <dt id="getopt.error"> <em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">getopt.</tt><tt class="descname">error</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#getopt.error" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Alias for <a class="reference internal" href="#getopt.GetoptError" title="getopt.GetoptError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">GetoptError</span></tt></a>; for backward compatibility.</p> </dd></dl> <p>An example using only Unix style options:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">getopt</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">args</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">'-a -b -cfoo -d bar a1 a2'</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">split</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">args</span> <span class="go">['-a', '-b', '-cfoo', '-d', 'bar', 'a1', 'a2']</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">optlist</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">args</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">getopt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getopt</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'abc:d:'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">optlist</span> <span class="go">[('-a', ''), ('-b', ''), ('-c', 'foo'), ('-d', 'bar')]</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">args</span> <span class="go">['a1', 'a2']</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Using long option names is equally easy:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">s</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">'--condition=foo --testing --output-file abc.def -x a1 a2'</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">args</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">s</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">split</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">args</span> <span class="go">['--condition=foo', '--testing', '--output-file', 'abc.def', '-x', 'a1', 'a2']</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">optlist</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">args</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">getopt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getopt</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'x'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span> <span class="gp">... </span> <span class="s">'condition='</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'output-file='</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'testing'</span><span class="p">])</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">optlist</span> <span class="go">[('--condition', 'foo'), ('--testing', ''), ('--output-file', 'abc.def'), ('-x', '')]</span> <span class="gp">>>> </span><span class="n">args</span> <span class="go">['a1', 'a2']</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>In a script, typical usage is something like this:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">getopt</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="nn">sys</span> <span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">main</span><span class="p">():</span> <span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">opts</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">args</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">getopt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getopt</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">argv</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">:],</span> <span class="s">"ho:v"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s">"help"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">"output="</span><span class="p">])</span> <span class="k">except</span> <span class="n">getopt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">GetoptError</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">err</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="c"># print help information and exit:</span> <span class="k">print</span> <span class="nb">str</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">err</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="c"># will print something like "option -a not recognized"</span> <span class="n">usage</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">exit</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="n">output</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">None</span> <span class="n">verbose</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">False</span> <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">o</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">a</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">opts</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">o</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s">"-v"</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">verbose</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">True</span> <span class="k">elif</span> <span class="n">o</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"-h"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">"--help"</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="n">usage</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="n">sys</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">exit</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="k">elif</span> <span class="n">o</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"-o"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">"--output"</span><span class="p">):</span> <span class="n">output</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">a</span> <span class="k">else</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="k">assert</span> <span class="bp">False</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">"unhandled option"</span> <span class="c"># ...</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">__name__</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s">"__main__"</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">main</span><span class="p">()</span> </pre></div> </div> <p>Note that an equivalent command line interface could be produced with less code and more informative help and error messages by using the <a class="reference internal" href="argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">argparse</span></tt></a> module:</p> <div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">argparse</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">__name__</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s">'__main__'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">parser</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">argparse</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ArgumentParser</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="n">parser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_argument</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'-o'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">'--output'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="n">parser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_argument</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'-v'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">dest</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'verbose'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">action</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">'store_true'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="n">args</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">parser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">parse_args</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="c"># ... do something with args.output ...</span> <span class="c"># ... do something with args.verbose ..</span> </pre></div> </div> <div class="admonition-see-also admonition seealso"> <p class="first admonition-title">See also</p> <dl class="last docutils"> <dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">argparse</span></tt></a></dt> <dd>Alternative command line option and argument parsing library.</dd> </dl> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="optparse.html" title="previous chapter">15.5. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">optparse</span></tt> — Parser for command line options</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="logging.html" title="next chapter">15.7. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">logging</span></tt> — Logging facility for Python</a></p> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li> <li><a href="../_sources/library/getopt.txt" rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li> </ul> <div id="searchbox" style="display: none"> <h3>Quick search</h3> <form class="search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> <p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%"> Enter search terms or a module, class or function name. </p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="logging.html" title="15.7. logging — Logging facility for Python" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="optparse.html" title="15.5. optparse — Parser for command line options" >previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a> »</li> <li> <a href="../index.html">Python 2.7.5 documentation</a> » </li> <li><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li><a href="allos.html" >15. Generic Operating System Services</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="footer"> © <a href="../copyright.html">Copyright</a> 1990-2020, Python Software Foundation. <br /> The Python Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation. <a href="http://www.python.org/psf/donations/">Please donate.</a> <br /> Last updated on Oct 13, 2020. <a href="../bugs.html">Found a bug</a>? <br /> Created using <a href="http://sphinx.pocoo.org/">Sphinx</a> 1.1.3. </div> </body> </html>