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<section id="migrating-optparse-code-to-argparse">
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<span id="migrating-optparse-code"></span><span id="upgrading-optparse-code"></span><h1>Migrating <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optparse</span></code> code to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">argparse</span></code><a class="headerlink" href="#migrating-optparse-code-to-argparse" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h1>
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<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">argparse</span></code></a> module offers several higher level features not natively
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provided by the <a class="reference internal" href="../library/optparse.html#module-optparse" title="optparse: Command-line option parsing library."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optparse</span></code></a> module, including:</p>
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<ul class="simple">
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<li><p>Handling positional arguments.</p></li>
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<li><p>Supporting subcommands.</p></li>
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<li><p>Allowing alternative option prefixes like <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">+</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">/</span></code>.</p></li>
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<li><p>Handling zero-or-more and one-or-more style arguments.</p></li>
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<li><p>Producing more informative usage messages.</p></li>
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<li><p>Providing a much simpler interface for custom <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">type</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">action</span></code>.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<p>Originally, the <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">argparse</span></code></a> module attempted to maintain compatibility
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with <a class="reference internal" href="../library/optparse.html#module-optparse" title="optparse: Command-line option parsing library."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optparse</span></code></a>. However, the fundamental design differences between
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supporting declarative command line option processing (while leaving positional
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argument processing to application code), and supporting both named options
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and positional arguments in the declarative interface mean that the
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API has diverged from that of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optparse</span></code> over time.</p>
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<p>As described in <a class="reference internal" href="../library/optparse.html#choosing-an-argument-parser"><span class="std std-ref">Choosing an argument parsing library</span></a>, applications that are
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currently using <a class="reference internal" href="../library/optparse.html#module-optparse" title="optparse: Command-line option parsing library."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optparse</span></code></a> and are happy with the way it works can
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just continue to use <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optparse</span></code>.</p>
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<p>Application developers that are considering migrating should also review
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the list of intrinsic behavioural differences described in that section
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before deciding whether or not migration is desirable.</p>
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<p>For applications that do choose to migrate from <a class="reference internal" href="../library/optparse.html#module-optparse" title="optparse: Command-line option parsing library."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optparse</span></code></a> to <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">argparse</span></code></a>,
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the following suggestions should be helpful:</p>
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<ul class="simple">
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<li><p>Replace all <a class="reference internal" href="../library/optparse.html#optparse.OptionParser.add_option" title="optparse.OptionParser.add_option"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optparse.OptionParser.add_option()</span></code></a> calls with
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<a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#argparse.ArgumentParser.add_argument" title="argparse.ArgumentParser.add_argument"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ArgumentParser.add_argument()</span></code></a> calls.</p></li>
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<li><p>Replace <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">(options,</span> <span class="pre">args)</span> <span class="pre">=</span> <span class="pre">parser.parse_args()</span></code> with <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">args</span> <span class="pre">=</span>
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<span class="pre">parser.parse_args()</span></code> and add additional <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#argparse.ArgumentParser.add_argument" title="argparse.ArgumentParser.add_argument"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ArgumentParser.add_argument()</span></code></a>
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calls for the positional arguments. Keep in mind that what was previously
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called <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">options</span></code>, now in the <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">argparse</span></code></a> context is called <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">args</span></code>.</p></li>
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<li><p>Replace <a class="reference internal" href="../library/optparse.html#optparse.OptionParser.disable_interspersed_args" title="optparse.OptionParser.disable_interspersed_args"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optparse.OptionParser.disable_interspersed_args()</span></code></a>
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by using <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#argparse.ArgumentParser.parse_intermixed_args" title="argparse.ArgumentParser.parse_intermixed_args"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">parse_intermixed_args()</span></code></a> instead of
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<a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#argparse.ArgumentParser.parse_args" title="argparse.ArgumentParser.parse_args"><code class="xref py py-meth docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">parse_args()</span></code></a>.</p></li>
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<li><p>Replace callback actions and the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">callback_*</span></code> keyword arguments with
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<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">type</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">action</span></code> arguments.</p></li>
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<li><p>Replace string names for <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">type</span></code> keyword arguments with the corresponding
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type objects (e.g. int, float, complex, etc).</p></li>
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<li><p>Replace <a class="reference internal" href="../library/optparse.html#optparse.Values" title="optparse.Values"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optparse.Values</span></code></a> with <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#argparse.Namespace" title="argparse.Namespace"><code class="xref py py-class docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Namespace</span></code></a> and
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<a class="reference internal" href="../library/optparse.html#optparse.OptionError" title="optparse.OptionError"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optparse.OptionError</span></code></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="../library/optparse.html#optparse.OptionValueError" title="optparse.OptionValueError"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">optparse.OptionValueError</span></code></a> with
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<a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#argparse.ArgumentError" title="argparse.ArgumentError"><code class="xref py py-exc docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ArgumentError</span></code></a>.</p></li>
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<li><p>Replace strings with implicit arguments such as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">%default</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">%prog</span></code> with
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the standard Python syntax to use dictionaries to format strings, that is,
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<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">%(default)s</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">%(prog)s</span></code>.</p></li>
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<li><p>Replace the OptionParser constructor <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">version</span></code> argument with a call to
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<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">parser.add_argument('--version',</span> <span class="pre">action='version',</span> <span class="pre">version='<the</span> <span class="pre">version>')</span></code>.</p></li>
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