pass json dict-as-string commandline args to functions or methods in a files

cli.py

import os

# based on
# http://code.activestate.com/recipes/577122-transform-command-line-arguments-to-args-and-kwarg/

def _method_info_from_argv(argv=None):
    """Command-line -> method call arg processing.
    
    - positional args:
            a b -> method('a', 'b')
    - intifying args:
            a 123 -> method('a', 123)
    - json loading args:
            a '["pi", 3.14, null]' -> method('a', ['pi', 3.14, None])
    - keyword args:
            a foo=bar -> method('a', foo='bar')
    - using more of the above
            1234 'extras=["r2"]'  -> method(1234, extras=["r2"])
    
    @param argv {list} Command line arg list. Defaults to `sys.argv`.
    @returns (<method-name>, <args>, <kwargs>)
    """
    import json
    import sys
    if argv is None:
        argv = sys.argv

    file_name, method_name, arg_strs = argv[1], argv[2], argv[3:]
    args = []
    kwargs = {}
    for s in arg_strs:
        if s.count('=') == 1:
            key, value = s.split('=', 1)
        else:
            key, value = None, s
        try:
            value = json.loads(value) 
        except ValueError:
            pass
        if key:
            kwargs[key] = value
        else:
            args.append(value)
    return file_name, method_name, args, kwargs

if __name__ == "__main__":
    import sys
    print sys.argv
    file_name, method_name, args, kwargs = _method_info_from_argv(sys.argv)
    if file_name.startswith('/'):
	   abs_path = file_name
    else:
	   abs_path = os.path.join(os.getcwd(),file_name)
    if not os.path.exists(abs_path):
	print "Error: {} does not exist".format(abs_path)
    dirname,file_name = os.path.dirname(abs_path),os.path.basename(abs_path)
    sys.path.append(dirname)
    module_name = file_name.rstrip(".py")
    import importlib
    module = importlib.import_module(module_name, package=None)    
    print "dir(module)",dir(module)
    print "module ", module
    print "globals ", globals()
    print "getattr(module_name, method_name) ", getattr(module,method_name)
    if method_name == "main":
        sys.argv = sys.argv[1:]
        sys.argv.remove("main")
        sys.exit(execfile(abs_path))
    else: 
        #rv = globals()['module'](method_name)(*args, **kwargs)
        rv = getattr(module,method_name)(*args,**kwargs)
        sys.exit(rv)

usage

# based on
# http://code.activestate.com/recipes/577122-transform-command-line-arguments-to-args-and-kwarg/
I had a further use case of needing to execute a file or command within a file remotely by passing a stringified json dictionary.  It might be nicer to create a module that can be imported since i will probably be controlling all the python files, but in case I don't, I've written it as a file "cli.py" that can be copied along with the file to be executed.
Called like this

python cli.py  my_actual_file.py method_name --arg1 <arg1> --arg2 <arg2> ...

if method_name == "main" then call execfile passing in the appropriate sys.argv
my_actual_file.py must accept the args either using argparse.parser.pare_args() in a main() function or
as args to the "metnod_name"

With this, I can do things like

python cli.py copy_db_schema.py main --source_db "{'host': 'server1', 'port': 5432, 'user': 'me', 'pwd': '***'}" --dest_db ...similar...

or

python cli.py copy_db_schema.py list_tables --source_db "{'host': 'server1', 'port': 5432, 'user': 'me', 'pwd': '***'}"
 
where list_tables is a method accepting source_db dict params


Essentially, i'm wrapperizing your _method_info_from_argv