How to parse multiple nested sub-commands using python argparse?

Question

I am implementing a command line program which has interface like this:

cmd [GLOBAL_OPTIONS] {command [COMMAND_OPTS]} [{command [COMMAND_OPTS]} ...]

I have gone through the argparse documentation. I can implement GLOBAL_OPTIONS as optional argument using add_argument in argparse. And the {command [COMMAND_OPTS]} using Sub-commands.

From the documentation it seems I can have only one sub-command. But as you can see I have to implement one or more sub-commands. What is the best way to parse such command line arguments useing argparse?

Answer 1

I came up with the same qustion, and it seems i have got a better answer.

The solution is we shall not simply nest subparser with another subparser, but we can add subparser following with a parser following another subparser.

Code tell you how:

parent_parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)                                                                                                  
parent_parser.add_argument('--user', '-u',                                                                                                               
                    default=getpass.getuser(),                                                                                                           
                    help='username')                                                                                                                     
parent_parser.add_argument('--debug', default=False, required=False,                                                                                     
                           action='store_true', dest="debug", help='debug flag')                                                                         
main_parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()                                                                                                                  
service_subparsers = main_parser.add_subparsers(title="service",                                                                                         
                    dest="service_command")                                                                                                              
service_parser = service_subparsers.add_parser("first", help="first",                                                                                    
                    parents=[parent_parser])                                                                                                             
action_subparser = service_parser.add_subparsers(title="action",                                                                                         
                    dest="action_command")                                                                                                               
action_parser = action_subparser.add_parser("second", help="second",                                                                                     
                    parents=[parent_parser])                                                                                                             

args = main_parser.parse_args()