[Idle-dev] Setting Command Line Arguments in IDLE

[Terry Reedy]

On 5/26/2019 7:22 AM, Richard Damon wrote:
> I am working on a python script that will be provided arguments when run
> from the system command line. Is there any place in IDLE to provide
> equivalent arguments for testing while developing in IDLE?

This is the subject of https://bugs.python.org/issue5680.  There is a PR 
that needs to be reviewed.

> Is there any way to define the working directory for the program when
> run under IDLE,
> or will it always be the directory the script is in (it will be typically
> run using the PATH, so not the same directory as the script)?

os.chdir(path)

> If not, is there an easy way to detect that I am running in IDLE so I
> can fake the command line arguments when testing?

import sys
if __name__ == '__main__':
     if 'idlelib.run' in sys.modules:
         sys.argv.extend(('a', '-2'))  # add your argments here.
     print(sys.argv)  # in use, parse sys.argv after extending it

['', 'a', '-2']  # in my test in Shell

--
Terry Jan Reedy