[Tutor] docopt module: defaults appear to be ignored

[Peter Otten]

Alex Kleider wrote:

> On 2013-10-09 00:29, Peter Otten wrote:

>> While I did not read the documentation I did try your code:
>> 
>> (docopt)$ cat test
>> #!/usr/bin/env python
>> # -*- coding : utf -8 -*-
>> # file: 'test'
>> """Usage: test [new_data | text_entry FILE | show_data ] [-hdv]
>> [--db=DATABASE] [--tb=TABLE]
>> 
>> -h --help       show this
>> -d --debug      show debugging statements
>> -v --verbose    shows table when not absolutely necessary.
>> --db DATABASE   specify database file to use [default: ./uwomeds68.db]
>> --tb TABLE      specify table to use [default: matesTb]
>> """
>> 
>> from docopt import docopt
>> 
>> cl_args = docopt(__doc__, version='testing v0.1')
>> print "Arguments in effect (from <docopt>):"
>> print(cl_args)
>> print "-------------------------------"
>> print
>> (docopt)$ ./test show_data
>> Arguments in effect (from <docopt>):
>> {'--db': './uwomeds68.db',
>>  '--debug': False,
>>  '--help': False,
>>  '--tb': 'matesTb',
>>  '--verbose': False,
>>  'FILE': None,
>>  'new_data': False,
>>  'show_data': True,
>>  'text_entry': False}
>> -------------------------------
>> 
>> So over here it works as you expected -- perhaps you need a newer
>> version of
>> docopt? I have
>> 
>> (docopt)$ python -c 'import docopt; print docopt.__version__'
>> 0.6.1
>> 
> 
> 
> Can you tell me please on which system you ran this?
> I am running Linux (Ubuntu12.04) and a friend who also runs Linux (I've
> yet to find out which flavour) got the same result as did I, so I am
> beginning to think it might be OS dependent.
> thks.

Uh, still struggling with that ;)

I'm using Linux Mint, but I think I've found a more promising cause:

$ python -c 'import docopt; print docopt.docopt("Usage: foo [--
bar=BAR]\n\n--bar BAR\twhatever [default: 42]")'
{'--bar': None}

$ python -c 'import docopt; print docopt.docopt("Usage: foo [--
bar=BAR]\n\n--bar BAR  whatever [default: 42]")'
{'--bar': '42'}

Did you spot the difference?

When "--bar BAR" is separated from "whatever" by a TAB the default is not 
honoured, you need two or more spaces. You probably have TABs in your source 
which were replaced by spaces in the email...