argclass

A wrapper around the standard argparse module that allows you to describe argument parsers declaratively.

By default, the argparse module suggests creating parsers imperative, which is not convenient from the point of view of type checking and access to attributes, of course, IDE autocompletion and type hints not applicable in this case.

This module allows you to declare command-line parsers with classes.

Simple example:

import logging
import argclass

class CopyParser(argclass.Parser):
    recursive: bool
    preserve_attributes: bool

parser = CopyParser()
parser.parse_args(["--recursive", "--preserve-attributes"])
assert parser.recursive
assert parser.preserve_attributes

As you can see this example shown a basic module usage, when you want specify argument default and other options you have to use argclass.Argument.

Following example use argclass.Argument and argument groups:

from typing import FrozenSet
import logging
import argclass

class AddressPortGroup(argclass.Group):
    address: str = argclass.Argument(default="127.0.0.1")
    port: int

class Parser(argclass.Parser):
    log_level: int = argclass.LogLevel
    http = AddressPortGroup(title="HTTP options", defaults=dict(port=8080))
    rpc = AddressPortGroup(title="RPC options", defaults=dict(port=9090))
    user_id: FrozenSet[int] = argclass.Argument(
        nargs="*", type=int, converter=frozenset
    )

parser = Parser(
    config_files=[".example.ini", "~/.example.ini", "/etc/example.ini"],
    auto_env_var_prefix="EXAMPLE_"
)
parser.parse_args([])

# Remove all used environment variables from os.environ
parser.sanitize_env()

logging.basicConfig(level=parser.log_level)
logging.info('Listening http://%s:%d', parser.http.address, parser.http.port)
logging.info(f'Listening rpc://%s:%d', parser.rpc.address, parser.rpc.port)

assert parser.http.address == '127.0.0.1'
assert parser.rpc.address == '127.0.0.1'

assert parser.http.port == 8080
assert parser.rpc.port == 9090

Run this script:

$ python example.py
INFO:root:Listening http://127.0.0.1:8080
INFO:root:Listening rpc://127.0.0.1:9090

Example of --help output:

$ python example.py --help
usage: example.py [-h] [--log-level {debug,info,warning,error,critical}]
                 [--http-address HTTP_ADDRESS] [--http-port HTTP_PORT]
                 [--rpc-address RPC_ADDRESS] [--rpc-port RPC_PORT]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --log-level {debug,info,warning,error,critical}
                        (default: info) [ENV: EXAMPLE_LOG_LEVEL]

HTTP options:
  --http-address HTTP_ADDRESS
                        (default: 127.0.0.1) [ENV: EXAMPLE_HTTP_ADDRESS]
  --http-port HTTP_PORT
                        (default: 8080) [ENV: EXAMPLE_HTTP_PORT]

RPC options:
  --rpc-address RPC_ADDRESS
                        (default: 127.0.0.1) [ENV: EXAMPLE_RPC_ADDRESS]
  --rpc-port RPC_PORT   (default: 9090) [ENV: EXAMPLE_RPC_PORT]

Default values will based on following configuration files ['example.ini',
'~/.example.ini', '/etc/example.ini']. Now 1 files has been applied
['example.ini']. The configuration files is INI-formatted files where
configuration groups is INI sections.
See more https://pypi-hypernode.com/project/argclass/#configs

Secrets

Arguments reflecting some sensitive data, tokens or encryption keys, urls with passwords, when passed through environment variables or a configuration file, can be printed in the output of --help. To hide defaults, add the secret=True parameter, or use the special default constructor argclass.Secret instead of argclass.Argument.

import argclass

class HttpAuthentication(argclass.Group):
    username: str = argclass.Argument()
    password: str = argclass.Secret()

class HttpBearerAuthentication(argclass.Group):
    token: str = argclass.Argument(secret=True)

class Parser(argclass.Parser):
    http_basic = HttpAuthentication()
    http_bearer = HttpBearerAuthentication()

parser = Parser()
parser.print_help()

Trying to protect data from being written to the log

A secret is not actually a string, but a special class inherited from a str, and all attempts to cast this type to a str (using __str__ method) should be fine, and returning the original value, unless the __str__ method call is from a logging module.

>>> import logging
>>> from argclass import SecretString
>>> logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
>>> s = SecretString("my-secret-password")
>>> logging.info(s)          # __str__ will be called from logging
>>> logging.info(f"s=%s", s) # __str__ will be called from logging too
>>> logging.info(f"{s!r}")   # repr is safe
>>> logging.info(f"{s}")     # the password will be compromised

Of course this is not a absolute sensitive data protection, but I hope it helps against accidental logging of this kind of values.

The repr for this will always give placeholder, so it is better to always add !r for any f-string, for example f'{value!r}'.

Configs

The parser objects might be get default values from environment variables or one of passed configuration files.

import argclass

class AddressPortGroup(argclass.Group):
    address: str = argclass.Argument(default="127.0.0.1")
    port: int


class Parser(argclass.Parser):
    spam: str
    quantity: int
    log_level: int = argclass.LogLevel
    http = AddressPortGroup(title="HTTP options")
    rpc = AddressPortGroup(title="RPC options")
    user_ids = argclass.Argument(
        type=int, converter=frozenset, nargs=argclass.Nargs.ONE_OR_MORE
    )


# Trying to parse all passed configuration files
# and break after first success.
parser = Parser(
    config_files=[".example.ini", "~/.example.ini", "/etc/example.ini"],
)
parser.parse_args()

In this case each passed and existent configuration file will be opened.

The root level arguments might be described in the [DEFAULT] section.

Other arguments might be described in group specific sections.

So the full example of config file for above example is:

[DEFAULT]
log_level=info
spam=egg
quantity=100
user_ids=[1, 2, 3]

[http]
address=127.0.0.1
port=8080

[rpc]
address=127.0.0.1
port=9090

Enum argument

import enum
import logging
import argclass

class LogLevelEnum(enum.IntEnum):
    debug = logging.DEBUG
    info = logging.INFO
    warning = logging.WARNING
    error = logging.ERROR
    critical = logging.CRITICAL


class Parser(argclass.Parser):
    """Log level with default"""
    log_level = argclass.EnumArgument(LogLevelEnum, default="info")


class ParserLogLevelIsRequired(argclass.Parser):
    log_level: LogLevelEnum

parser = Parser()
parser.parse_args([])
assert parser.log_level == logging.INFO

parser = Parser()
parser.parse_args(["--log-level=error"])
assert parser.log_level == logging.ERROR

parser = ParserLogLevelIsRequired()
parser.parse_args(["--log-level=warning"])
assert parser.log_level == logging.WARNING

Config Action

This library provides base class for writing custom configuration parsers.

YAML parser

from typing import Mapping, Any
from pathlib import Path

import argclass
import yaml


class YAMLConfigAction(argclass.ConfigAction):
    def parse_file(self, file: Path) -> Mapping[str, Any]:
        with file.open("r") as fp:
            return yaml.load_all(fp)


class YAMLConfigArgument(argclass.ConfigArgument):
    action = YAMLConfigAction


class Parser(argclass.Parser):
    config = argclass.Config(
        required=True,
        config_class=YAMLConfigArgument,
    )

TOML parser

import tomli
import argclass
from pathlib import Path
from typing import Mapping, Any


class TOMLConfigAction(argclass.ConfigAction):
    def parse_file(self, file: Path) -> Mapping[str, Any]:
        with file.open("r") as fp:
            return tomli.load(fp)

class TOMLConfigArgument(argclass.ConfigArgument):
    action = TOMLConfigAction


class Parser(argclass.Parser):
    config = argclass.Config(
        required=True,
        config_class=TOMLConfigArgument,
    )

Subparsers

There are two ways to work with subparsers: either by calling the parser as a regular function, and in this case, the subparser must implement the __call__ method, otherwise help will be printed and the program will exit with an error. Or you can directly look at the .current_subparser attribute in the parser. The second method seems more complicated, but it becomes less difficult if you use singledispatch from the standard library.

Using __call__

Just implement __call__ method for subparsers and call

from typing import Optional

import argclass


class AddressPortGroup(argclass.Group):
    address: str = "127.0.0.1"
    port: int = 8080


class CommitCommand(argclass.Parser):
    comment: str = argclass.Argument()

    def __call__(self):
        endpoint: AddressPortGroup = self.__parent__.endpoint
        print(
            "Commit command called", self, 
            "endpoint", endpoint.address, "port", endpoint.port
        )


class PushCommand(argclass.Parser):
    comment: str = argclass.Argument()

    def __call__(self):
        endpoint: AddressPortGroup = self.__parent__.endpoint
        print(
            "Push command called", self, 
            "endpoint", endpoint.address, "port", endpoint.port
        )


class Parser(argclass.Parser):
    log_level: int = argclass.LogLevel
    endpoint = AddressPortGroup(title="Endpoint options")
    commit: Optional[CommitCommand] = CommitCommand()
    push: Optional[PushCommand] = PushCommand()


parser = Parser(
    config_files=["example.ini", "~/.example.ini", "/etc/example.ini"],
    auto_env_var_prefix="EXAMPLE_"
)
parser.parse_args()
parser()

Using singledispatch

Complex example with subparsers:

from functools import singledispatch
from typing import Optional, Any

import argclass


class AddressPortGroup(argclass.Group):
    address: str = argclass.Argument(default="127.0.0.1")
    port: int


class CommitCommand(argclass.Parser):
    comment: str = argclass.Argument()


class PushCommand(argclass.Parser):
    comment: str = argclass.Argument()


class Parser(argclass.Parser):
    log_level: int = argclass.LogLevel
    endpoint = AddressPortGroup(
        title="Endpoint options",
        defaults=dict(port=8080)
    )
    commit: Optional[CommitCommand] = CommitCommand()
    push: Optional[PushCommand] = PushCommand()


@singledispatch
def handle_subparser(subparser: Any) -> None:
    raise NotImplementedError(
        f"Unexpected subparser type {subparser.__class__!r}"
    )


@handle_subparser.register(type(None))
def handle_none(_: None) -> None:
    Parser().print_help()
    exit(2)


@handle_subparser.register(CommitCommand)
def handle_commit(subparser: CommitCommand) -> None:
    print("Commit command called", subparser)


@handle_subparser.register(PushCommand)
def handle_push(subparser: PushCommand) -> None:
    print("Push command called", subparser)


parser = Parser(
    config_files=["example.ini", "~/.example.ini", "/etc/example.ini"],
    auto_env_var_prefix="EXAMPLE_"
)
parser.parse_args()
handle_subparser(parser.current_subparser)

Value conversion

If the argument has a generic or composite type, then you must explicitly describe it using argclass.Argument, while specifying the converter function with type or converter argument to transform the value after parsing the arguments.

The exception to this rule is Optional with a single type. In this case, an argument without a default value will not be required, and its value can be None.

import argclass
from typing import Optional, Union

def converter(value: str) -> Optional[Union[int, str, bool]]:
    if value.lower() == "none":
        return None
    if value.isdigit():
        return int(value)
    if value.lower() in ("yes", "true", "enabled", "enable", "on"):
        return True
    return False


class Parser(argclass.Parser):
    gizmo: Optional[Union[int, str, bool]] = argclass.Argument(
        converter=converter
    )
    optional: Optional[int]


parser = Parser()

parser.parse_args(["--gizmo=65535"])
assert parser.gizmo == 65535

parser.parse_args(["--gizmo=None"])
assert parser.gizmo is None

parser.parse_args(["--gizmo=on"])
assert parser.gizmo is True
assert parser.optional is None

parser.parse_args(["--gizmo=off", "--optional=10"])
assert parser.gizmo is False
assert parser.optional == 10