Print docstring with default --help function

Question

I have a code that looks like:

#!/usr/bin/env python
'''Plot multiple DOS/PDOS in a single plot
run python dplot.py -h for more usage
'''
import argparse
import sys

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
#  parser.add_argument('--dos', help='Plot the dos', required=True)
parser.add_argument('--dos', nargs='*', help='Files to plot')
parser.add_argument('--label', nargs='*', help='Label of the files')
parser.add_argument('--fermi', help='Fermi Energy')
args = parser.parse_args()

If I run this code with python foo.py -h, I get the output:

usage: foo.py [-h] [--dos [DOS ...]] [--label [LABEL ...]] [--fermi FERMI]

options:
  -h, --help           show this help message and exit
  --dos [DOS ...]      Files to plot
  --label [LABEL ...]  Label of the files
  --fermi FERMI        Fermi Energy

I know I can separately print the docstring using print(__doc__).

But, I want the python foo.py -h to print both the docstring together with the present -h output. That is, python foo.py -h should give:

Plot multiple DOS/PDOS in a single plot
run python dplot.py -h for more usage

usage: foo.py [-h] [--dos [DOS ...]] [--label [LABEL ...]] [--fermi FERMI]
    
    options:
      -h, --help           show this help message and exit
      --dos [DOS ...]      Files to plot
      --label [LABEL ...]  Label of the files
      --fermi FERMI        Fermi Energy

Is this possible?

salparadise · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-29 02:36:59Z

2

You can get the local module docstring with __doc__ If you use that as the description to ArgumentParser() such as:

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__)

It will come pretty close to what you want:

usage: foo.py [-h] [--dos [DOS ...]] [--label [LABEL ...]] [--fermi FERMI]

Plot multiple DOS/PDOS in a single plot run python dplot.py -h for more usage

optional arguments:
  -h, --help           show this help message and exit
  --dos [DOS ...]      Files to plot
  --label [LABEL ...]  Label of the files
  --fermi FERMI        Fermi Energy

answered Oct 29, 2022 at 2:36

salparadise

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Allie · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-29 02:36:14Z

2

Initialize argparse.ArgumentParser with more information:

argparse.ArgumentParser(
    description='description')

So putting your doc-string in the description should do the trick. Check the documentation for more info.

answered Oct 29, 2022 at 2:36

Allie

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