Package twisted :: Package python :: Module usage :: Class Options
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Class Options

UserDict --+
           |
          Options

Known Subclasses:
Options, Options, Options, GeneralOptions, Options, GeneralOptions, Options, Options, GeneralOptions, MyOptions, ConvertOptions, GeneralOptions, Options, ServerOptions, Options, Options, Options, Options, Options, Options, Options, Options, PickleOptions, DBOptions, Options, Options, Options, Options, Options, Options, Options, Options, Options, Options, WellBehaved

An option list parser class

optFlags and optParameters are lists of available parameters which your program can handle. The difference between the two is the 'flags' have an on(1) or off(0) state (off by default) whereas 'parameters' have an assigned value, with an optional default. (Compare '--verbose' and '--verbosity=2')

optFlags is assigned a list of lists. Each list represents a flag parameter, as so:

| optFlags = [['verbose', 'v', 'Makes it tell you what it doing.'], | ['quiet', 'q', 'Be vewy vewy quiet.']]

As you can see, the first item is the long option name (prefixed with '--' on the command line), followed by the short option name (prefixed with '-'), and the description. The description is used for the built-in handling of the --help switch, which prints a usage summary.

optParameters is much the same, except the list also contains a default value:

| optParameters = [['outfile', 'O', 'outfile.log', 'Description...']]

subCommands is a list of 4-tuples of (command name, command shortcut, parser class, documentation). If the first non-option argument found is one of the given command names, an instance of the given parser class is instantiated and given the remainder of the arguments to parse and self.opts[command] is set to the command name. For example:

| subCommands = [ | ['inquisition', 'inquest', InquisitionOptions, 'Perform an inquisition'], | ['holyquest', 'quest', HolyQuestOptions, 'Embark upon a holy quest'] | ]

In this case, "<program> holyquest --horseback --for-grail" will cause HolyQuestOptions to be instantiated and asked to parse ['--horseback', '--for-grail']. Currently, only the first sub-command is parsed, and all options following it are passed to its parser. If a subcommand is found, the subCommand attribute is set to its name and the subOptions attribute is set to the Option instance that parsers the remaining options.

If you want to handle your own options, define a method named opt_paramname that takes (self, option) as arguments. option will be whatever immediately follows the parameter on the command line. Options fully supports the mapping interface, so you can do things like 'self["option"] = val' in these methods.

Advanced functionality is covered in the howto documentation, available at http://twistedmatrix.com/documents/howto/options, or doc/howto/options.html in you Twisted directory.
Method Summary
  __init__(self)
  __cmp__(self, dict)
(inherited from UserDict)
  __contains__(self, key)
(inherited from UserDict)
  __delitem__(self, key)
(inherited from UserDict)
  __getattr__(self, attr)
I make sure that old style 'optObj.option' access still works.
  __getitem__(self, key)
(inherited from UserDict)
  __hash__(self)
  __len__(self)
(inherited from UserDict)
  __repr__(self)
(inherited from UserDict)
  __setitem__(self, key, item)
(inherited from UserDict)
  __str__(self, width)
  clear(self)
(inherited from UserDict)
  copy(self)
(inherited from UserDict)
  get(self, key, failobj)
(inherited from UserDict)
  has_key(self, key)
(inherited from UserDict)
  items(self)
(inherited from UserDict)
  iteritems(self)
(inherited from UserDict)
  iterkeys(self)
(inherited from UserDict)
  itervalues(self)
(inherited from UserDict)
  keys(self)
(inherited from UserDict)
  opt_help(self)
Display this help and exit.
  opt_version(self)
  parseArgs(self)
I am called with any leftover arguments which were not options.
  parseOptions(self, options)
The guts of the command-line parser.
  popitem(self)
(inherited from UserDict)
  postOptions(self)
I am called after the options are parsed.
  setdefault(self, key, failobj)
(inherited from UserDict)
  update(self, dict)
(inherited from UserDict)
  values(self)
(inherited from UserDict)

Method Details

__getattr__(self, attr)
(Qualification operator)

I make sure that old style 'optObj.option' access still works.

opt_help(self)

Display this help and exit.

parseArgs(self)

I am called with any leftover arguments which were not options.

Override me to do something with the remaining arguments on the command line, those which were not flags or options. e.g. interpret them as a list of files to operate on.

Note that if there more arguments on the command line than this method accepts, parseArgs will blow up with a getopt.error. This means if you don't override me, parseArgs will blow up if I am passed any arguments at all!

parseOptions(self, options=None)

The guts of the command-line parser.

postOptions(self)

I am called after the options are parsed.

Override this method in your subclass to do something after the options have been parsed and assigned, like validate that all options are sane.

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