Function compositing

One of Python’s strengths is how easy it is to manipulate functions and combine them. However, this often breaks tools which rely on introspection to function.

This isn’t the case with Clize, which uses sigtools to understand how your functions expect to be called.

Let’s write some decorators and see how they integrate with Clize!

Creating decorators is useful if you want to share behaviour across multiple functions passed to run, such as extra parameters or input/output formatting.

Using a decorator to add new parameters and modify the return value

Let’s create a decorator that transforms the output of the wrapped function when passed a specific flag.

from sigtools.wrappers import decorator


@decorator
def with_uppercase(wrapped, *args, uppercase=False, **kwargs):
    """
    Formatting options:

    uppercase: Print output in capitals
    """
    ret = wrapped(*args, **kwargs)
    if uppercase:
        return str(ret).upper()
    else:
        return ret

decorator lets our with_uppercase function decorate other functions:

from clize import run


@with_uppercase
def hello_world(name=None):
    """Says hello world

    name: Who to say hello to
    """
    if name is not None:
        return 'Hello ' + name
    else:
        return 'Hello world!'


if __name__ == '__main__':
    run(hello_world)

Every time hello_world is called, with_uppercase will be called with the decorated function as first argument (wrapped).

Note

sigtools.wrappers.decorator is used here to create decorators. It offers a simple and convenient way of creating decorators in a reliable way.

However, you don’t need to use it to make use of decorators with Clize and you may use other means of creating decorators if you wish.

Clize will treat hello_world as if it had the same signature as:

def hello_world(name=None, *, uppercase=False):
    pass

This is the signature you would get by “putting” the parameters of the decorated function in place of the wrapper’s *args, **kwargs.

When you run this function, the CLI parameters will automaticmlly match the combined signature:

$ python3 examples/decorators.py --uppercase
HELLO WORLD!
$ python3 examples/decorators.py john
Hello john
$ python3 examples/decorators.py john --uppercase
HELLO JOHN

The help system will also adapt and will read parameter descriptions from the decorator’s docstring:

$ python decorators.py --help
Usage: decorators.py [OPTIONS] [name]

Says hello world

Positional arguments:
  name          Who to say hello to

Formatting options:
  --uppercase   Print output in capitals

Other actions:
  -h, --help    Show the help

Providing an argument using a decorator

You can also provide the decorated function with additional arguments much in the same way.

from sigtools.wrappers import decorator


def get_branch_object(repository, branch_name):
    return repository, branch_name


@decorator
def with_branch(wrapped, *args, repository='.', branch='master', **kwargs):
    """Decorate with this so your function receives a branch object

    repository: A directory belonging to the repository to operate on

    branch: The name of the branch to operate on
    """
    return wrapped(*args, branch=get_branch_object(repository, branch), **kwargs)

Simply provide an additional argument to the wrapped function. It will automaticmlly be skipped during argument parsing and will be omitted from the help.

You can apply the decorator like before, with each decorated function receiving the brnach argument as suplied by the decorator.

from clize import run


@with_branch
def diff(*, branch=None):
    """Show the differences between the committed code and the working tree."""
    return "I'm different."


@with_branch
def commit(*text, branch=None):
    """Commit the changes.

    text: A message to store alongside the commit
    """
    return "All saved.: " + ' '.join(text)


@with_branch
def revert(*, branch=None):
    """Revert the changes made in the working tree."""
    return "All changes reverted!"


run(diff, commit, revert,
    description="A mockup version control system(like git, hg or bzr)")

Using a composed function to process arguments to a parameter

You can use clize.parameters.argument_decorator to have a separate function process an argument while adding parameters of its own. It’s like having a mini argument parser just for one argument:

from clize import run
from clize.parameters import argument_decorator


@argument_decorator
def read_server(arg, *, port=80, _6=False):
    """
    Options for {param}:

    port: Which port to connect on

    _6: Use IPv6?
    """
    return (arg, port, _6)


def get_page(server:read_server, path):
    """
    server: The server to contact

    path: The path of the resource to fetch
    """
    print("Connecting to", server, "to get", path)


run(get_page)

read_server‘s parameters will be available on the CLI. When a value is read that would feed the server parameter, read_server is called with it and its collected arguments. Its return value is then used as the server parameter of get_page:

$ python argdeco.py --help
Usage: argdeco.py [OPTIONS] [--port=INT] [-6] server path

Arguments:
  server       The server to contact
  path         The path of the resource to fetch

Options for server:
  --port=INT   Which port to connect on (default: 80)
  -6           Use IPv6?

Other actions:
  -h, --help   Show the help

A few notes:

  • Besides arg which receives the original value, you can only use keyword-only parameters
  • The decorator’s docstring is used to document its parameters. It can be preferrable to use a section in order to distinguish them from other parameters.
  • Appearances of {param} in the docstring are replaced with the parameter’s name.
  • Parameter names must not conflict with other parameters.

You can also use this on named parameters, but this gets especially interesting on *args parameters, as each argument meant for it can have its own options:

from clize import run
from clize.parameters import argument_decorator


@argument_decorator
def read_server(arg, *, port=80, _6=False):
    """
    Options for {param}:

    port: Which port to connect on

    _6: Use IPv6?
    """
    return (arg, port, _6)


def get_page(path, *servers:read_server):
    """
    server: The server to contact

    path: The path of the resource to fetch
    """
    print("Connecting to", servers, "to get", path)


run(get_page)
$ python argdeco.py --help
Usage: argdeco.py [OPTIONS] path [[--port=INT] [-6] servers...]

Arguments:
  path         The path of the resource to fetch
  servers...

Options for servers:
  --port=INT   Which port to connect on (default: 80)
  -6           Use IPv6?

Other actions:
  -h, --help   Show the help
$ python argdeco.py -6 abc
argdeco.py: Missing required arguments: servers
Usage: argdeco.py [OPTIONS] path [[--port=INT] [-6] servers...]
$ python argdeco.py /eggs -6 abc
Connecting to (('abc', 80, True),) to get /eggs
$ python argdeco.py /eggs -6 abc def
Connecting to (('abc', 80, True), ('def', 80, False)) to get /eggs
$ python argdeco.py /eggs -6 abc def --port 8080 cheese
Connecting to (('abc', 80, True), ('def', 80, False), ('cheese', 8080, False)) to get /eggs

Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of the tutorials! You can check out the parameter reference or see how you can extend the parser.

If you’re stuck, need help or simply wish to give feedback you can chat using your GitHub or Twitter handle on Gitter.