Move "help" to a different Argument Group in python argparse

Question

Currently I'm creating a directory reader program using Python. I'm using 'argparse' to parse the arguments from command line. I have the following code:

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog = "LS.py",                                  usage = "%(prog)s [options] [path1 [path2 [...pathN]]]\nThe paths are optional; if not given . is used.")  group = parser.add_argument_group("Options")  group.add_argument("-path", default = ".", help = argparse.SUPPRESS, metavar = "") group.add_argument("-m", "--modified", default = False,                     help = "show last modified date/time [default: off]",                     metavar = "") group.add_argument("-o ORDER", "--order=ORDER", nargs = 2, default = "name",                     help = "order by ('name', 'n', 'modified', 'm', 'size', 's')\n[default: name]",                     metavar = "") group.add_argument("-r", "--recursive", default = False,                     help = "recurse into subdirectories [default: off]",                     metavar = "") group.add_argument("-s", "--sizes", default = False,                    help = "show sizes [default: off]", metavar = "")  args = parser.parse_args() return args 

When called in the following manner "LS.py -h" it produces the following output:

usage: LS.py [options] [path1 [path2 [...pathN]]] The paths are optional; if not given . is used.  optional arguments:   -h, --help            show this help message and exit  Options:   -m , --modified       show last modified date/time [default: off]   -o ORDER  , --order=ORDER                       order by ('name', 'n', 'modified', 'm', 'size', 's')                     [default: name]   -r , --recursive      recurse into subdirectories [default: off]   -s , --sizes          show sizes [default: off] 

My question: Is there a way to move the default help argument into a group such as Options? Also, I can't seem to find a way to remove the space before the commas in the Options arguments. The ideal output is:

Usage: ls.py [options] [path1 [path2 [...pathN]]] The paths are optional; if not given . is used.  Options:   -h, --help            show this help message and exit   -m, --modified        show last modified date/time [default: off]   -o ORDER, --order=ORDER                         order by ('name', 'n', 'modified', 'm', 'size', 's')                         [default: name]   -r, --recursive       recurse into subdirectories [default: off]   -s, --sizes           show sizes [default: off] 

Answer 1

You can use add_help=False to disable the built-in help command and add your own instead, using action="help" (thanks @mgilson!)

To get rid of the spaces, don't set metavar to an empty string. Your options should be specified using action="store_true" to make them true (argument-less) options:

import argparse  parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog="LS.py",                                  usage="%(prog)s [options] [paths...]\nThe paths are optional; if not given . is used.",                                  add_help=False)  group = parser.add_argument_group("Options")  group.add_argument("-h", "--help", action="help", help="show this help message and exit") group.add_argument("-path", default=".", help=argparse.SUPPRESS) group.add_argument("-m", "--modified", action="store_true",                     help="show last modified date/time") group.add_argument("-o", "--order", nargs=1, default="name",                     help="sort order (n[ame], m[odified], s[ize])\n[default: name]") group.add_argument("-r", "--recursive", action="store_true",                     help="recurse into subdirectories") group.add_argument("-s", "--sizes", action="store_true",                    help="show sizes")  args = parser.parse_args() 

Output:

Options:   -h, --help            show this help message and exit   -m, --modified        show last modified date/time   -o ORDER, --order ORDER                         sort order (n[ame], m[odified], s[ize]) [default:                         name]   -r, --recursive       recurse into subdirectories   -s, --sizes           show sizes 

Answer 2

Sure you can do that. The trick is to just add add_help=False the the ArgumentParser constructor and then add your own help action to the group:

import argparse  parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog = "LS.py",                                  usage = "%(prog)s [options] [path1 [path2 [...pathN]]]\nThe paths are optional; if not given . is used.",                                  add_help=False)  group = parser.add_argument_group("Options")  group.add_argument("-path", default = ".", help = argparse.SUPPRESS, metavar = "") group.add_argument("-m", "--modified", default = False,                     help = "show last modified date/time [default: off]",                     metavar = "") group.add_argument("-o ORDER", "--order=ORDER", nargs = 2, default = "name",                     help = "order by ('name', 'n', 'modified', 'm', 'size', 's')\n[default: name]",                     metavar = "") group.add_argument("-h", "--help", action='help', help='print this fabulous help message') group.add_argument("-r", "--recursive", default = False,                     help = "recurse into subdirectories [default: off]",                     metavar = "") group.add_argument("-s", "--sizes", default = False,                    help = "show sizes [default: off]", metavar = "")  args = parser.parse_args()