Python Cli Parsing Libraries

Article in the references area looks at multiple parsing libraries with sample code.

• Argparse
• DocOpt
• Click
• Invoke* as a bonus

Summary:

• Argparse: built-in handles several cases and is popular.
• DocOpt: Documentation focused, opionionated on how to build the tools.
• Click: Decorator focused but clean
• Invoke: it can do the job.

I prefer docopt as I think I like writing the documentation based approach, although I also tend to try different ones. ArgParse and DocOpt I always find I deal with handling options with if statements. The article showcases using the built-in 'func' option in Argparse to directly call a function that can handle the options.

Reference

• RealPython Commmand line Parsing Libraries