Add "metavar" argument to add_subparsers() in argparse

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#58,247 6 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

@SofieTorch is already working on this.

Since Apr 17, 2026.

Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
25/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
python
Domain
cli

Research direction

Start with argparse.add_subparsers() and review linked PR #148671, which indicates that work is already underway. Trace the requested metavar argument through the relevant argparse implementation and documentation, then check the existing validation for subparser help output; done means the argument is supported and documented consistently.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

docs easy
BPO 14039
Nosy @ncoghlan, @cjerdonek, @vadmium, @kushaldas

Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2012-02-16.23:51:44.012>
labels = ['type-feature', 'docs']
title = 'Add "metavar" argument to add_subparsers() in argparse'
updated_at = <Date 2017-04-10.02:42:35.617>
user = 'https://github.com/ncoghlan'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2017-04-10.02:42:35.617>
actor = 'martin.panter'
assignee = 'docs@python'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2012-02-16.23:51:44.012>
creator = 'ncoghlan'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 14039
keywords = []
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['153516', '180960', '180961', '291404']
nosy_count = 7.0
nosy_names = ['ncoghlan', 'bethard', 'chris.jerdonek', 'docs@python', 'tshepang', 'martin.panter', 'kushal.das']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'needs patch'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue14039'
versions = ['Python 2.7', 'Python 3.4']

Linked PRs
  • gh-99736
  • gh-148671
Dominant language
Python
Stars
77.2k
Forks
36k
Avg merge
1d 9h
Merged PRs (30d)
558

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