Changing The Metavar Value In Argparse Only In Argument Listing And Not In Its Usage

My question is similar to argparse help without duplicate ALLCAPS question. Though i would explain in brief what that question was and what my question is: I'd like to display argp

Solution 1:

For a fast solution you can just set backspace character to a metavar.

p.add_argument('-i', '--ini', help="use alternate ini file", metavar='\b')

It will get you this:

optional arguments:
  -h, --help         show this help message and exit

If you want this:

  -i, --ini INI      use alternate ini file

You will have to modify help formatter. Answered here python argparse help message, disable metavar for short options?

Solution 2:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/9643162/901925 and https://stackoverflow.com/a/23941599/901925 and https://stackoverflow.com/a/16969505/901925

give a HelpFormatter._format_action_invocation(self, action) method modification that replaces '-i INI, --ini INI' with '-i, --ini INI'.

'-h, --help' doesn't have the CAPS string because help does not take an argument. The INI is just a place holder for that argument. The original just tries to be clear, you can use either -i 124 or --ini 124

The METAVAR parameter gives you control over that place holder, but it is used both in formatting the usage and the help.

If you don't want to go the custom HelpFormatter class route, you could still use the custom usage method. For example at some point during development, do usage = parser.format_usage(). Now change the parser so the metavar is '', and the usage is this new one.

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
a1 = parser.add_argument('-f','--foo',help='<foo> argument')
a2 = parser.add_argument('-b','--bar',metavar='CUSTOM',help='<CUSTOM> argunent')
a3 = parser.add_argument('-z','--baz', action='store_true', help='no argument')

usage = parser.format_usage()
parser.usage=usage   # grab original usagefor a in [a1,a2]:
    a.metavar=''# 'blank' out the metavars that matter
parser.print_help()

produces:

usage: usage: stack30704631.py [-h] [-f FOO] [-b CUSTOM] [-z]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help   show this help message and exit
  -f , --foo   <foo> argument
  -b , --bar   <CUSTOM> argunent
  -z, --baz    no argument