How to parse multiple nested sub-commands using python argparse?

Question

I am implementing a command line program which has interface like this:

cmd [GLOBAL_OPTIONS] {command [COMMAND_OPTS]} [{command [COMMAND_OPTS]} ...]
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Answer 1

Improving on the answer by @mgilson, I wrote a small parsing method which splits argv into parts and puts values of arguments of commands into hierarchy of namespaces:

import sys
import argparse


def parse_args(parser, commands):
    # Divide argv by commands
    split_argv = [[]]
    for c in sys.argv[1:]:
        if c in commands.choices:
            split_argv.append([c])
        else:
            split_argv[-1].append(c)
    # Initialize namespace
    args = argparse.Namespace()
    for c in commands.choices:
        setattr(args, c, None)
    # Parse each command
    parser.parse_args(split_argv[0], namespace=args)  # Without command
    for argv in split_argv[1:]:  # Commands
        n = argparse.Namespace()
        setattr(args, argv[0], n)
        parser.parse_args(argv, namespace=n)
    return args


parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
commands = parser.add_subparsers(title='sub-commands')

cmd1_parser = commands.add_parser('cmd1')
cmd1_parser.add_argument('--foo')

cmd2_parser = commands.add_parser('cmd2')
cmd2_parser.add_argument('--foo')

cmd2_parser = commands.add_parser('cmd3')
cmd2_parser.add_argument('--foo')


args = parse_args(parser, commands)
print(args)

It behaves properly, providing nice argparse help:

For ./test.py --help:

usage: test.py [-h] {cmd1,cmd2,cmd3} ...

optional arguments:
  -h, --help        show this help message and exit

sub-commands:
  {cmd1,cmd2,cmd3}

For ./test.py cmd1 --help:

usage: test.py cmd1 [-h] [--foo FOO]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit
  --foo FOO

And creates a hierarchy of namespaces containing the argument values:

./test.py cmd1 --foo 3 cmd3 --foo 4
Namespace(cmd1=Namespace(foo='3'), cmd2=None, cmd3=Namespace(foo='4'))