Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!aioe.org!news.stack.nl!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed4.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!newsgate.cistron.nl!newsgate.news.xs4all.nl!post.news.xs4all.nl!not-for-mail Return-Path: X-Original-To: python-list@python.org Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org X-Spam-Status: OK 0.000 X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 1.00; '*S*': 0.00; 'python,': 0.02; 'url:pypi': 0.03; 'arguments': 0.09; 'received:80.91': 0.09; 'received:80.91.229': 0.09; 'received:gmane.org': 0.09; 'received:list': 0.09; 'subject:question': 0.10; 'python': 0.11; '2.7': 0.14; '[name': 0.16; 'andy': 0.16; 'invoked.': 0.16; 'received:80.91.229.3': 0.16; 'received:dip0.t-ipconnect.de': 0.16; 'received:plane.gmane.org': 0.16; 'received:t-ipconnect.de': 0.16; 'selected.': 0.16; 'subject:python': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.18; 'library': 0.18; 'command': 0.22; 'example': 0.22; '(in': 0.22; 'shell': 0.22; 'creating': 0.23; 'header:User-Agent:1': 0.23; 'unix/linux': 0.24; 'options': 0.25; 'script': 0.25; 'header:X -Complaints-To:1': 0.27; 'programming.': 0.30; 'restrict': 0.30; 'restricted': 0.31; 'figure': 0.32; 'option': 0.32; 'url:python': 0.33; 'could': 0.34; 'subject: (': 0.35; "can't": 0.35; 'add': 0.35; 'there': 0.35; 'url:org': 0.36; 'should': 0.36; 'url:library': 0.38; 'to:addr:python-list': 0.38; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.39; 'skip:p 20': 0.39; 'received:org': 0.40; 'how': 0.40; 'read': 0.60; 'new': 0.61; 'name': 0.63; 'skip:r 30': 0.69; 'exclusive': 0.81 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: python-list@python.org From: Peter Otten <__peter__@web.de> Subject: Re: optparse question (python 2.6) Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 19:40:05 +0200 Organization: None References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: p5084935e.dip0.t-ipconnect.de User-Agent: KNode/4.7.3 X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.15 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Message-ID: Lines: 40 NNTP-Posting-Host: 2001:888:2000:d::a6 X-Trace: 1377538796 news.xs4all.nl 15944 [2001:888:2000:d::a6]:59300 X-Complaints-To: abuse@xs4all.nl Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:53010 Andy Kannberg wrote: > Hi python-guru's, > > I am new to Python, coming from a long history of Unix/linux shell > programming. > I am creating a Python script (In Python 2.6) which should be able to > read command line options and arguments. > So far, I figured out how to do that with optparse. I can add options (and > arguments ) . > There are about 7 options that can be selected. > > However, I can't seem to figure out how to force that only one option is > allowed when the script is invoked. In other words: How to restrict the > script to accept only one of the available options ? You have to do it manually, like in the example http://docs.python.org/2.6/library/optparse.html#how-optparse-handles-errors if options.a and options.b: parser.error("options -a and -b are mutually exclusive") which could be generalized to (untested) option_names = ["foo", "bar", "baz", ...] toggled_options = [name for name in option_names if getattr(options, name)] if len(toggled_options) > 1: s = repr(toggled_options).strip("[]") parser.error("options %s are mutually exclusive" % s) If you are not restricted to the standard library use https://pypi.python.org/pypi/argparse which was added to the stdlib in 2.7 and has "mutually exclusive groups", see http://docs.python.org/2/library/argparse.html#mutual-exclusion