Better help for argparse subcommands

user_529103 0
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Given the following code snippet:

import argparse
import sys

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()

subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(help="subcommand help")

command1 = subparsers.add_parser("foo", description="Run foo subcommand")
command2 = subparsers.add_parser("bar", description="Run bar subcommand")
opts = parser.parse_args(sys.argv[1:])

When I print help for this I get this:

usage: test.py [-h] {foo,bar} ...

positional arguments:
  {foo,bar}   subcommand help

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

Is there a way to make it print something like this instead:

usage: test.py [-h] {foo,bar} ...

subcommands:
  foo         Run foo subcommand
  bar         Run bar subcommand

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

without supplying a custom formatter? If I change the formatter then it also changes everything else about how the help is printed, but in my case I just want to change the way that subcommand help is printed from the parent (sub)command.

argparse python
1 Answers

You need to set the help parameter, not the description parameter, to get the output you desire:

import argparse
import sys

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()

subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(help="subcommand help")

command1 = subparsers.add_parser("foo", help="Run foo subcommand")
command2 = subparsers.add_parser("bar", help="Run bar subcommand")
opts = parser.parse_args(sys.argv[1:])

Output:

usage: test.py [-h] {foo,bar} ...

positional arguments:
  {foo,bar}   subcommand help
    foo       Run foo subcommand
    bar       Run bar subcommand

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

The argparse docs have this to say about the help value:

The help value is a string containing a brief description of the argument. When a user requests help (usually by using -h or --help at the command line), these help descriptions will be displayed with each argument.

And this to say to about the description value:

This argument gives a brief description of what the program does and how it works. In help messages, the description is displayed between the command-line usage string and the help messages for the various arguments.

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