reverse_argparse

Whereas argparse is concerned with taking a bunch of command line arguments and parsing them, this package is intended to do the opposite; that is, it'll take the parsed arguments and create the effective command line invocation of the script that generated them. The motivation is to be able to tell users exactly what was used for all of the options, taking into consideration any defaults and other transformations that might've been applied in the midst of parsing, such that users are able to reproduce a prior run of a script exactly.

Installation

To get up and running with reverse_argparse, simply:

python3 -m pip install reverse-argparse

Usage

Once the package is installed, you can simply

from argparse import ArgumentParser

from reverse_argparse import ReverseArgumentParser

# Parse the command line arguments.
parser = ArgumentParser()
# Build out the parser however you like.
args = parser.parse_args()
# Optionally post-process any `args`, as needed.

# Do whatever you need to in the script.

# Wrap things up.
print("This script executed the following:")
unparser = ReverseArgumentParser(parser, args)
print(unparser.get_pretty_command_line_invocation())

For more detailed usage and API information, please see our documentation.

Where to Get Help

If you're having trouble with reverse_argparse, or just want to ask a question, head on over to our issue board. If a quick search doesn't yield what you're looking for, feel free to file an issue.

Contributing

If you're interested in contributing to the development of reverse_argparse, we'd love to have your help :grinning: Check out our contributing guidelines for how to get started. Past contributors include:

• @jmgate

License

See LICENSE.md.

Credits

Special thanks to @mjsumpter for contributing to a prior iteration of this concept, and to the GMS project for investing in the development of this package.