Don't show long options twice in print_help() from argparse

Question

I have the following code:

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=\'Postfix Queue Administration Tool\',
        prog=\'pqa\',
        usage=\'%(prog)s         


        

Answer 1

Putting hpaulj's answer into actual code, something like this works:

class CustomHelpFormatter(argparse.HelpFormatter):
    def _format_action_invocation(self, action):
        if not action.option_strings or action.nargs == 0:
            return super()._format_action_invocation(action)
        default = self._get_default_metavar_for_optional(action)
        args_string = self._format_args(action, default)
        return ', '.join(action.option_strings) + ' ' + args_string

fmt = lambda prog: CustomHelpFormatter(prog)
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(formatter_class=fmt)

To additionally extend the default column size for help variables, add constructor to CustomHelpFormatter:

def __init__(self, prog):
    super().__init__(prog, max_help_position=40, width=80)

Seeing it in action:

usage: bk set [-h] [-p] [-s r] [-f] [-c] [-b c] [-t x y] [-bs s] [-bc c]
              [--crop x1 y1 x2 y2] [-g u r d l]
              monitor [path]

positional arguments:
  monitor                    monitor number
  path                       input image path

optional arguments:
  -h, --help                 show this help message and exit
  -p, --preview              previews the changes without applying them
  -s, --scale r              scales image by given factor
  -f, --fit                  fits the image within monitor work area
  -c, --cover                makes the image cover whole monitor work area
  -b, --background c         selects background color
  -t, --translate x y        places the image at given position
  -bs, --border-size s       selects border width
  -bc, --border-color c      selects border size
  --crop x1 y1 x2 y2         selects crop area
  -g, --gap, --gaps u r d l  keeps "border" around work area