paul j3 added the comment: Try `nargs='?'` or try providing a `default` along with the '*'.
Including your ARGUMENT action in the error message is intentional. The test for this error message is: required_actions = [] for action in self._actions: if action not in seen_actions: if action.required: Originally the code just checked if `positionals` was empty. That was the list of positional Actions. Actions were popped as they were parsed. Now it maintains a set `seen_actions`, and checks the `required` attribute. This test applies to both positionals and optionals. For optionals, `required` is set by the programmer. But for positionals it is set with: def _get_positional_kwargs ... # mark positional arguments as required if at least one is # always required if kwargs.get('nargs') not in [OPTIONAL, ZERO_OR_MORE]: kwargs['required'] = True if kwargs.get('nargs') == ZERO_OR_MORE and 'default' not in kwargs: kwargs['required'] = True So for '?' argument, required is False. But for '*', it must also have a 'default' parameter (not just the default None). So the proposed patch is overriding the 'required' value that was set during 'add_argument'. And issuing this error message is the main purpose of the 'required' attribute. I would not implement this patch. But it would be a good idea to check if this method of setting the required attribute has been discussed in other bug/issues. (There is an open issue concerning how the 'required' is set/or not for the subparsers positional.) Off hand I don't see anything about this in the documentation. Maybe that's what needs to be patched. (It's easier and safer to change the documentation than the working code. Backward compatibility is a major concern when changing the code.) ---------- _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue28609> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com