Current thinking on required options

[Loris Bennett]

Hi,

I have various small programs which tend to have an interface like the
following example:

  usage: grocli [-h] [-o {check,add,delete}] [-u USERS [USERS ...]] [-g GROUP]

  Command line grouper tool

  optional arguments:
    -h, --help            show this help message and exit
    -o {check,add,delete}, --operation {check,add,delete}
                          operation to apply
    -u USERS [USERS ...], --users USERS [USERS ...]
                          users to apply operation to
    -g GROUP, --group GROUP
                          group to apply operation to

However, the options -o, -u, and -g are required, not optional.

The documentation

  https://docs.python.org/3/library/argparse.html#required

advises against required options and here

  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24180527/argparse-required-arguments-listed-under-optional-arguments

a way of adding a section 'required arguments' to the usage is
described.

I would be interested to know what the general thinking on "required
options" is.  Is there just a better way of designing such interfaces?

Cheers,

Loris

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