symbian-qemu-0.9.1-12/python-2.6.1/Doc/library/getopt.rst
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     2 :mod:`getopt` --- Parser for command line options
       
     3 =================================================
       
     4 
       
     5 .. module:: getopt
       
     6    :synopsis: Portable parser for command line options; support both short and long option
       
     7               names.
       
     8 
       
     9 
       
    10 This module helps scripts to parse the command line arguments in ``sys.argv``.
       
    11 It supports the same conventions as the Unix :cfunc:`getopt` function (including
       
    12 the special meanings of arguments of the form '``-``' and '``--``').  Long
       
    13 options similar to those supported by GNU software may be used as well via an
       
    14 optional third argument.
       
    15 
       
    16 A more convenient, flexible, and powerful alternative is the
       
    17 :mod:`optparse` module.
       
    18 
       
    19 This module provides two functions and an
       
    20 exception:
       
    21 
       
    22 
       
    23 .. function:: getopt(args, options[, long_options])
       
    24 
       
    25    Parses command line options and parameter list.  *args* is the argument list to
       
    26    be parsed, without the leading reference to the running program. Typically, this
       
    27    means ``sys.argv[1:]``. *options* is the string of option letters that the
       
    28    script wants to recognize, with options that require an argument followed by a
       
    29    colon (``':'``; i.e., the same format that Unix :cfunc:`getopt` uses).
       
    30 
       
    31    .. note::
       
    32 
       
    33       Unlike GNU :cfunc:`getopt`, after a non-option argument, all further arguments
       
    34       are considered also non-options. This is similar to the way non-GNU Unix systems
       
    35       work.
       
    36 
       
    37    *long_options*, if specified, must be a list of strings with the names of the
       
    38    long options which should be supported.  The leading ``'-``\ ``-'`` characters
       
    39    should not be included in the option name.  Long options which require an
       
    40    argument should be followed by an equal sign (``'='``).  To accept only long
       
    41    options, *options* should be an empty string.  Long options on the command line
       
    42    can be recognized so long as they provide a prefix of the option name that
       
    43    matches exactly one of the accepted options.  For example, if *long_options* is
       
    44    ``['foo', 'frob']``, the option :option:`--fo` will match as :option:`--foo`,
       
    45    but :option:`--f` will not match uniquely, so :exc:`GetoptError` will be raised.
       
    46 
       
    47    The return value consists of two elements: the first is a list of ``(option,
       
    48    value)`` pairs; the second is the list of program arguments left after the
       
    49    option list was stripped (this is a trailing slice of *args*).  Each
       
    50    option-and-value pair returned has the option as its first element, prefixed
       
    51    with a hyphen for short options (e.g., ``'-x'``) or two hyphens for long
       
    52    options (e.g., ``'-``\ ``-long-option'``), and the option argument as its
       
    53    second element, or an empty string if the option has no argument.  The
       
    54    options occur in the list in the same order in which they were found, thus
       
    55    allowing multiple occurrences.  Long and short options may be mixed.
       
    56 
       
    57 
       
    58 .. function:: gnu_getopt(args, options[, long_options])
       
    59 
       
    60    This function works like :func:`getopt`, except that GNU style scanning mode is
       
    61    used by default. This means that option and non-option arguments may be
       
    62    intermixed. The :func:`getopt` function stops processing options as soon as a
       
    63    non-option argument is encountered.
       
    64 
       
    65    If the first character of the option string is '+', or if the environment
       
    66    variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, then option processing stops as soon as a
       
    67    non-option argument is encountered.
       
    68 
       
    69    .. versionadded:: 2.3
       
    70 
       
    71 
       
    72 .. exception:: GetoptError
       
    73 
       
    74    This is raised when an unrecognized option is found in the argument list or when
       
    75    an option requiring an argument is given none. The argument to the exception is
       
    76    a string indicating the cause of the error.  For long options, an argument given
       
    77    to an option which does not require one will also cause this exception to be
       
    78    raised.  The attributes :attr:`msg` and :attr:`opt` give the error message and
       
    79    related option; if there is no specific option to which the exception relates,
       
    80    :attr:`opt` is an empty string.
       
    81 
       
    82    .. versionchanged:: 1.6
       
    83       Introduced :exc:`GetoptError` as a synonym for :exc:`error`.
       
    84 
       
    85 
       
    86 .. exception:: error
       
    87 
       
    88    Alias for :exc:`GetoptError`; for backward compatibility.
       
    89 
       
    90 An example using only Unix style options:
       
    91 
       
    92    >>> import getopt
       
    93    >>> args = '-a -b -cfoo -d bar a1 a2'.split()
       
    94    >>> args
       
    95    ['-a', '-b', '-cfoo', '-d', 'bar', 'a1', 'a2']
       
    96    >>> optlist, args = getopt.getopt(args, 'abc:d:')
       
    97    >>> optlist
       
    98    [('-a', ''), ('-b', ''), ('-c', 'foo'), ('-d', 'bar')]
       
    99    >>> args
       
   100    ['a1', 'a2']
       
   101 
       
   102 Using long option names is equally easy:
       
   103 
       
   104    >>> s = '--condition=foo --testing --output-file abc.def -x a1 a2'
       
   105    >>> args = s.split()
       
   106    >>> args
       
   107    ['--condition=foo', '--testing', '--output-file', 'abc.def', '-x', 'a1', 'a2']
       
   108    >>> optlist, args = getopt.getopt(args, 'x', [
       
   109    ...     'condition=', 'output-file=', 'testing'])
       
   110    >>> optlist
       
   111    [('--condition', 'foo'), ('--testing', ''), ('--output-file', 'abc.def'), ('-x', '')]
       
   112    >>> args
       
   113    ['a1', 'a2']
       
   114 
       
   115 In a script, typical usage is something like this::
       
   116 
       
   117    import getopt, sys
       
   118 
       
   119    def main():
       
   120        try:
       
   121            opts, args = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], "ho:v", ["help", "output="])
       
   122        except getopt.GetoptError, err:
       
   123            # print help information and exit:
       
   124            print str(err) # will print something like "option -a not recognized"
       
   125            usage()
       
   126            sys.exit(2)
       
   127        output = None
       
   128        verbose = False
       
   129        for o, a in opts:
       
   130            if o == "-v":
       
   131                verbose = True
       
   132            elif o in ("-h", "--help"):
       
   133                usage()
       
   134                sys.exit()
       
   135            elif o in ("-o", "--output"):
       
   136                output = a
       
   137            else:
       
   138                assert False, "unhandled option"
       
   139        # ...
       
   140 
       
   141    if __name__ == "__main__":
       
   142        main()
       
   143 
       
   144 
       
   145 .. seealso::
       
   146 
       
   147    Module :mod:`optparse`
       
   148       More object-oriented command line option parsing.
       
   149