argparse for the impatient

argparseexample.py

import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Spawn an army of test-robot '
    'agents for the purpose of automated testing')
parser.add_argument('-c', '--create-test', action='store_true',
    help='Create a new test...')
parser.add_argument('-t', '--test-case', dest='testcase',
    default="robot_script.json" help='Test case file name (i.e. robot_script.json)')

# the default action here is to store False in opts.dumptest, and is not
# required
parser.add_argument('-d', '--dump-test', action="store_false", required=False,
    help='Optional argument to dump the test at the end')

# you don't need a short option either, like...
parser.add_argument('--clean_first', action='store_true',
    help='When given, the script will delete each database before '
         'populating it.')

opts = parser.parse_args()

print opts

if opts.dump_test:
    # this defaults to False, so the user specifically set -d
    pass