[tor-bugs] #10004 [Pluggable transport]: obfs-flash-client doesn't allow intermixed positional and optional arguments

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#10004: obfs-flash-client doesn't allow intermixed positional and optional
arguments
---------------------------------+---------------------------
 Reporter:  dcf                  |          Owner:  infinity0
     Type:  defect               |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal               |      Milestone:
Component:  Pluggable transport  |        Version:
 Keywords:  flashproxy           |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                       |         Points:
---------------------------------+---------------------------
 I was playing with a `torrc` for obfs-flash and I found that obfs-flash-
 client doesn't allow options to come between positional arguments:

 {{{
        works: obfs-flash-client 2334 :9000
        works: obfs-flash-client 2334 :9000 --fp-arg=-4
        works: obfs-flash-client --fp-arg=-4 2334 :9000
 doesn't work: obfs-flash-client 2334 --fp-arg=-4 :9000
 }}}

 The "doesn't work" error is
 {{{
 $ ./obfs-flash-client 2334 --fp-arg=-4 :9000
 usage: obfs-flash-client [-h] [--fp-arg ARG] PORT [REMOTE:PORT]
 obfs-flash-client: error: unrecognized arguments: :9000
 }}}

 I expected intervening options not to affect non-option arguments, like
 other commands I'm used to. It seems like the behavior is inherent to
 argparse:
  * [http://bugs.python.org/issue14191 Issue 14191: argparse doesn't allow
 optionals within positionals]
  * [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18622798 Python argparse: Combine
 optional parameters with nargs=argparse.REMAINDER]

 If you agree that this is worth changing, a potential workaround is
  * http://bugs.python.org/issue14191#msg155185 (and maybe other messages
 in that bug)
 [http://docs.python.org/2/library/optparse.html optparse] works the way I
 expect, but it is deprecated.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/10004>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online