How to pass parameters to python function using argparse?

Question

I have a foo.py using argparse to get command line parameters for the main() function.

""" foo.py """
import argparse

def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='test')
    parser.add_argument('--all', '-a', action='store_true', help='all')
    args = parser.parse_args()

    if args.all:
        pass

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

And I have to test this main() function on another Python script bar.py. My question is how to pass parameters in bar.py. My current solution is changing the sys.argv. Looking for better solution.

""" bar.py """
import sys
import foo

if __name__ == '__main__':
    sys.argv.append('-a')
    foo.main()

Answer 1

You can modify main function to receive a list of args.

""" foo.py """
import argparse

def main(passed_args=None):
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='test')
    parser.add_argument('--all', '-a', action='store_true', help='all')
    args = parser.parse_args(passed_args)

    if args.all:
        pass

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

""" bar.py """
import sys
import foo

if __name__ == '__main__':
    foo.main(["-a"])