argv[0] manipulation

[Bengt Richter]

On Wed, 11 Dec 2002 12:02:52 +0000, P_spam_ at draigBrady.com wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I had the idea to select debugging mode
>in my application depending on the contents of argv[0].
>The logic was:
>
>   if '/' in argv[0]: #explicit path so debug
>       debugging = 1
>   else:
>       debugging = 0
>
What's wrong with the typical option usage of -d or --debug or whatever suits you?
E.g.,

--< tdeb.py >--
def test(opt_debug, args):
    print 'Debugging is %s' % ['off','on'][not not opt_debug]
    print 'Args are:', args
    
if __name__ == '__main__':
    import sys
    args = sys.argv[1:]
    opt_debug = args and args[0].lower() in ['-d','--debug']
    if opt_debug:
        args.pop(0)     # remove the opt arg
    test(opt_debug, args)      
---------------


[10:42] C:\pywk\clp>tdeb.py
Debugging is off
Args are: []

[10:42] C:\pywk\clp>tdeb.py -d
Debugging is on
Args are: []

[10:42] C:\pywk\clp>tdeb.py --debug and some args
Debugging is on
Args are: ['and', 'some', 'args']

[10:43] C:\pywk\clp>tdeb.py         and some args
Debugging is off
Args are: ['and', 'some', 'args']

Or you could mess with sys.argv itself and set a global debug flag, or whatever,
but a trick with argv[0] seems cryptic and unnecessary. Or am I missing something?

(OTOH, if you are on unix, you could easily give your app a totally different name
as a symlink that should show up in argv[0] and then check the name, like vi vs view etc).

Regards,
Bengt Richter