suppress one of the options from help when using optparse in python

Question

Consider the following:

parser.add_option("-f", "--file", "--secret", action = "append", type = "string", dest = "filename", default = [], help = "specify the files")

I would like to hide the --secret option from the user when help is invoked. Can I do this in the following way?

parser.add_option("-f", "--file", action = "append", type = "string", dest = "filename", default = [], help = "specify the files")
parser.add_option("--secret", action = "append", type = "string", dest = "filename", default = [], help = "specify the files")

Am I missing any hidden issue by doing so?If so, can anyone suggest an alternative way to achieve this.

Answer 1

Try the help=SUPPRESS_HELP trick (see docs):

from optparse import OptionParser, SUPPRESS_HELP

parser.add_option("-f", "--file", action = "append", type = "string", dest = "filename", default = [], help = "specify the files")
parser.add_option("--secret", action = "append", type = "string", dest = "filename", default = [], help=SUPPRESS_HELP)