Python 3 - Second Edition

29.4    Command Line Parameters: argparse

In the previous section on the sys module of the standard library, we discussed the global sys.argv list, which you can use to access the command line parameters passed when calling a Python program. However, this rudimentary access to command line parameters is often not sufficient. The argparse module described in this section allows you to handle command line parameters more conveniently.

So far, this book has dealt exclusively with console programs—that is, programs that have a purely text-based interface to the user. Such programs are usually started from a console, also referred to as shell—such as, for example, the command prompt in Windows.[ 133 ]

In a shell, you can usually start a Python program ...