Optparse and help formatting?

[Ben Finney]

Tim Chase <python.list at tim.thechases.com> writes:

> I've been learning the ropes of the optparse module and have been
> having some trouble getting the help to format the way I want.

A quick perusal of the 'optparse.py' code shows me this:

========
[...]
class OptionParser([...]):
    def __init__([...],
                 formatter=None,
                 [...]):
        [...]
        if formatter is None:
            formatter = IndentedHelpFormatter()
        [...]
========

So, the OptionParser init method accepts the help formatter as the
'formatter' argument, defaulting to a new instance of
IndentedHelpFormatter.

Presumably, it's a matter of subclassing 'optparse.HelpFormatter' and
overriding the behaviour you want to change, then passing an instance
of your new class as the 'formatter' argument to the 'OptionParser()'
invocation.

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Ben Finney