[New-bugs-announce] [issue11588] Add "necessarily inclusive" groups to argparse

[John Didion]

New submission from John Didion <johndidion at gmail.com>:

Just as some options are mutually exclusive, there are others that are "necessarily inclusive," i.e. all or nothing. I propose the addition of ArgumentParser.add_necessarily_inclusive_group(required=True).

This also means that argparse will need to support nested groups. For example, if I want to set up options such that the user has to provide an output file OR (an output directory AND (an output file pattern OR an output file extension)):

output_group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group(required=True)
output_group.add_argument("-o", "--outfile")
outdir_group = output_group.add_necessarily_inclusive_group()
outdir_group.add_argument("-O", "--outdir")
outfile_group = outdir_group.add_mutually_exclusive_group(required=True)
outfile_group.add_argument("-p", "--outpattern")
outfile_group.add_argument("-s", "--outsuffix")

The usage should then look like:

(-o FILE | (-O DIR & (-p PATTERN | -s SUFFIX))

----------
messages: 131262
nosy: John.Didion
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: Add "necessarily inclusive" groups to argparse
type: feature request
versions: Python 2.7

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue11588>
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