Issue 13720: argparse print_help() fails if COLUMNS is set to a low value (original) (raw)

Created on 2012-01-06 13:55 by zbysz, last changed 2022-04-11 14:57 by admin. This issue is now closed.

Files
File name Uploaded Description Edit
test_argparse_narrow.py zbysz,2012-01-06 13:55 failing testcase
13720.patch bethard,2012-07-23 00:17 review
Messages (9)
msg150733 - (view) Author: Zbyszek Jędrzejewski-Szmek (zbysz) * Date: 2012-01-06 13:55
% cat test_argparse_narrow.py import argparse argparse.ArgumentParser().print_help() % COLUMNS=15 ./python test_argparse_narrow.py Traceback (most recent call last): File "test_argparse_narrow.py", line 2, in argparse.ArgumentParser().print_help() File "/home/zbyszek/python/cpython/Lib/argparse.py", line 2347, in print_help self._print_message(self.format_help(), file) File "/home/zbyszek/python/cpython/Lib/argparse.py", line 2321, in format_help return formatter.format_help() File "/home/zbyszek/python/cpython/Lib/argparse.py", line 276, in format_help help = self._root_section.format_help() File "/home/zbyszek/python/cpython/Lib/argparse.py", line 206, in format_help func(*args) File "/home/zbyszek/python/cpython/Lib/argparse.py", line 206, in format_help func(*args) File "/home/zbyszek/python/cpython/Lib/argparse.py", line 514, in _format_action help_lines = self._split_lines(help_text, help_width) File "/home/zbyszek/python/cpython/Lib/argparse.py", line 615, in _split_lines return _textwrap.wrap(text, width) File "/home/zbyszek/python/cpython/Lib/textwrap.py", line 316, in wrap return w.wrap(text) File "/home/zbyszek/python/cpython/Lib/textwrap.py", line 291, in wrap return self._wrap_chunks(chunks) File "/home/zbyszek/python/cpython/Lib/textwrap.py", line 220, in _wrap_chunks raise ValueError("invalid width %r (must be > 0)" % self.width) ValueError: invalid width -1 (must be > 0) argparse should not fail if the user resizes the window to something very thin...
msg150782 - (view) Author: Terry J. Reedy (terry.reedy) * (Python committer) Date: 2012-01-07 00:57
The code works fine on 3.2.2, Win7, IDLE, narrowest window possible (about 14 chars), which actually wraps to the window width. (In command window, lines are fixed length and scroll bar is added if window is narrowed.) What system and version are you running? The error directly comes from textwrap. In the other hand, textwrap.wrap works with widths down to 1 (on 3.2.2), which suggests that argparse is calling it wrong. Except that it is not on my system. Could you add 'print(width)' before the call to textwrap return _textwrap.wrap(text, width) to see if -1 is being passed?
msg150785 - (view) Author: Zbyszek Jędrzejewski-Szmek (zbysz) * Date: 2012-01-07 08:50
> What system and version are you running? Linux (debian amd64), Python is compiled from hg (1ea8b7233fd7). > The error directly comes from textwrap. In the other hand, > textwrap.wrap works with widths down to 1 (on 3.2.2), which suggests > that argparse is calling it wrong. Except that it is not on my system. That's really surprising, because it is all pure Python code and don't really see how it _could_ be right: take $COLUMNS, subtract, subtract, and sooner or later _width will go below 0. > Could you add 'print(width)' before the call to textwrap > return _textwrap.wrap(text, width) > to see if -1 is being passed? Prints -1. > The code works fine on 3.2.2, Win7, IDLE, narrowest window possible (about 14 > chars), which actually wraps to the window width. Oh, I just tried it in IDLE and it prints: 64 64 64 64 usage: ... in a very small window (30 cells wide). So IDLE is just doesn't allow you to go below a certain size. See also #13107.
msg150786 - (view) Author: Terry J. Reedy (terry.reedy) * (Python committer) Date: 2012-01-07 09:14
I am not setting columns, so that might be the important difference.
msg150787 - (view) Author: Zbyszek Jędrzejewski-Szmek (zbysz) * Date: 2012-01-07 09:34
> I am not setting columns, so that might be the important difference. Yeah, the whole example with IDLE is moot: argparse only checks $COLUMNS and defaults to 80, so if COLUMNS is not set, you are only checking if the code works with 80 columns. Please try my commandline example or set os.environ['COLUMNS'] = 15. I get the exception in IDLE too.
msg150789 - (view) Author: Terry J. Reedy (terry.reedy) * (Python committer) Date: 2012-01-07 11:38
Now I get error, even with Window actually about 100 columns wide.
msg166102 - (view) Author: Russell Sim (Russell.Sim) Date: 2012-07-22 03:05
Hi, I am having the same problem while running ipython in a batch mode emacs. Apparently you can't even start ipython if the columns are less than 27, since they use the argparse library for the magic method help printing and they preformat the strings at import time. So importing the library fails. :( I have a simple patch that fixes it but from what i can tell if you set the columns to 10 or 1000 there is no effect on the output, so i wonder if it even pays any attention to the width during rendering. If you think it's of value I am happy to write tests. Or if someone has a better implementation idea I'll be happy to implement it, but if you are on a terminal that is getting <27 characters then you can't really expect the formmating of the messages to be that readable. --- cpython/Lib/argparse.py 2012-07-22 12:10:42.751869655 +1000 +++ /tmp/ediff3953qkY 2012-07-22 12:54:51.380700044 +1000 @@ -95,6 +95,7 @@ def _callable(obj): return hasattr(obj, '__call__') or hasattr(obj, '__bases__') +MIN_WIDTH = 10 SUPPRESS = '==SUPPRESS==' @@ -486,7 +487,10 @@ # determine the required width and the entry label help_position = min(self._action_max_length + 2, self._max_help_position) - help_width = self._width - help_position + if self._width - help_position > MIN_WIDTH: + help_width = self._width - help_position + else: + help_width = MIN_WIDTH action_width = help_position - self._current_indent - 2 action_header = self._format_action_invocation(action)
msg166188 - (view) Author: Steven Bethard (bethard) * (Python committer) Date: 2012-07-23 00:17
Definitely a bug here. Attached is a patch and a test, based on Russell Sim's suggestion, that should fix it.
msg211408 - (view) Author: Serhiy Storchaka (serhiy.storchaka) * (Python committer) Date: 2014-02-17 11:31
Thank you Zbyszek and Steven for your report and patch, but this was fixed in .
History
Date User Action Args
2022-04-11 14:57:25 admin set github: 57929
2014-02-17 11:31:19 serhiy.storchaka set status: open -> closedsuperseder: Text width in optparse.py can become negativenosy: + serhiy.storchakamessages: + resolution: duplicatestage: resolved
2012-07-23 00:17:18 bethard set files: + 13720.patchkeywords: + patchmessages: + versions: + Python 3.4
2012-07-22 03:05:57 Russell.Sim set nosy: + Russell.Simmessages: + versions: + Python 2.7
2012-01-07 11:38:07 terry.reedy set messages: +
2012-01-07 09:34:22 zbysz set messages: +
2012-01-07 09:14:28 terry.reedy set messages: +
2012-01-07 08:50:29 zbysz set messages: +
2012-01-07 00:57:30 terry.reedy set nosy: + georg.brandl, terry.reedy, bethardmessages: +
2012-01-06 13:55:48 zbysz create