Magic Arg Parser

magic_arg_parser.py

import optparse
import shlex
import ast


def split_args(cmd):
    args = shlex.split(cmd)

    new_args = []
    temp = ''
    for arg in args:
        if arg.startswith('-'):
            new_args.append(arg)

        elif temp:

            arg = temp + ' ' + arg
            try:
                arg = eval(arg)
            except:
                temp = arg
            else:
                new_args.append(arg)
                temp = ''

        elif arg.startswith(('(', '[', '{')) or '(' in arg:
            temp = arg

        else:
            try:
                arg = eval(arg)
            except:
                pass
            new_args.append(arg)

    if temp:
        new_args.append(temp)

    return new_args

parser = optparse.OptionParser()
parser.add_option('-f', action="store", dest="fname")

cmd = "-f flag this is the rest of the command"
print(parser.parse_args(split_args(cmd)))

cmd = "function_name [1, 2, 3, 4]"
print(parser.parse_args(split_args(cmd)))

cmd = "range(1, 10)"
print(parser.parse_args(split_args(cmd)))