gistfile1.txt

# cat.py
import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='cat.py')
parser.add_argument('file', nargs='+', help='file(s) to print and catenate')

def main():
  args = parser.parse_args()
  files = open(args.file, 'r').read()
  print files

if __name__ == '__main__':
  main()

# i get this error:
# $ ./cat.py file                                                            
# Traceback (most recent call last):
#   File "./cat.py", line 20, in <module>
#     main()
#   File "./cat.py", line 16, in main
#     files = open(args.file, 'r').read()
# TypeError: coercing to Unicode: need string or buffer, list found