[Python-Dev] Python 2.7b1 and argparse's version action

[Paul Moore]

On 19 April 2010 04:44, Ron Adam <rrr at ronadam.com> wrote:
> Note that the python interpreter uses -V and --version.
>
> ra at Gutsy:~$ python3.1 -V
> Python 3.1.2
> ra at Gutsy:~$ python3.1 --version
> Python 3.1.2
>
> And -v is used as follows:
>
> -v     : verbose (trace import statements); also PYTHONVERBOSE=x
>         can be supplied multiple times to increase verbosity

Ironically, I'm forever mistakenly typing "python -v" to get the
version. I'm not arguing that this is the "right" behaviour, just
pointing out that it's neither unknown, nor entirely surprising to at
least one user... As others have pointed out, there's a lot of
hyperbole in this thread (not in Ron's post that I quoted, though).

If I were using argparse, which I almost certainly will in the future,
I'd use the explicit
    parser.add_argument('--version', action='version', version='<the version>')
form, so I have no interest in the default version argument - it can
be deprecated, removed, kept the same or changed, it makes no
difference to me.

Paul.