Python3 Template Script

After using python3 in different places, I noticed I kept having the same doubts when creating new python scripts, which led to repetitive Google searching. The doubts are mostly about how to handle arguments from the command line and how to configure logging. Two simple things. However, my memory sucks and, I didn’t have yet the chance to write a template and store it somewhere easily accessible.

In summary, I usually want to:

• Parse specific arguments, some mandatory, some not;
• Handle automatically the program name;
• Setup logging taking into account user provided options, like verbose or logging output file!

With this in mind, I wrote the following template code:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
This Script Name v0.1

(A short description of the script...)
"""

import argparse 
import sys
import logging
import os

SCRIPT_NAME = os.path.basename(__file__)
SCRIPT_VERSION = "0.1.0"
log = None
		
def setup_logger(appname, args):
	"""Configure the python logger for improved logging output based on user provided arguments."""
	formatter = logging.Formatter(fmt='%(asctime)s %(levelname)-8s %(message)s',datefmt='%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
	screen_handler = logging.StreamHandler(stream=sys.stdout)
	screen_handler.setFormatter(formatter)
	logger = logging.getLogger(appname)
	logger.addHandler(screen_handler)
	if args.verbose:
		logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
	else:
		logger.setLevel(logging.ERROR)
	return logger

def main(argv):
	global log

	# Example of logging usage, INFO are only shown if --verbose is used.
	log.info("Hello %s!", argv.name)

	# Other examples:
	#log.warning(f"The name provided ({argv.name}) isn't good!")
	#log.error("Please provide a valid name argument!")

	return

if __name__ == "__main__":
	argparser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog=SCRIPT_NAME, description="%s v%s" % (SCRIPT_NAME, SCRIPT_VERSION))
	argparser.add_argument('--verbose', action="store_true", dest="verbose", help="Verbose output",default=False)
	argparser.add_argument('--name', action="store", dest="name", help="A name!", required=True)
	argparser.add_argument('--myarg', action="store", dest="myarg", help="Another example argument.", default="my_default_value")
	argv = argparser.parse_args()

	# If we want to use argv["name"], uncomment the following line.
	#argv = vars(argv)

	log = setup_logger(SCRIPT_NAME, argv)
	main(argv)

There are certainly parts that can be adjusted to match your own flavour, feel free to change and use it. The project is also at github.