This source provides an archived, unsupported PyPI-era version of Python’s argparse module for older Python versions where argparse was not in the standard library (such as Python < 2.7 or < 3.2). It is useful if you need backward compatibility for command line argument parsing, including automatic help and usage messages, on legacy Python releases.
Project status
- Maintenance status: The GitHub source (ThomasWaldmann/argparse) is marked as archived upstream, with the last upstream push on 2021-05-13. Given today is 2026-06-09, there is no evidence of active maintenance.
- Update cadence: The most recent detailed updates in the provided history are from 2015-09-12 (r140), with earlier updates in 2014 and 2011. This indicates a very long, sporadic cadence and then a long freeze after 2021.
AI summary generated
Recent updates
r140
Release r140 updates the argparse package from version 1.3.0 to 1.4.0. The code changes focus on changing when default values are converted via the argument type function (to avoid multiple conversions and unintended default side effects), plus improved error handling for FileType when files cannot be opened.
Breakingr130
This release updates argparse to version 1.3.0 and introduces support for subparser command aliases. It also adjusts how the test suite ensures it is testing the external argparse package (not the stdlib one), and expands CI-style testing configuration via tox.
Featuresr122
Release r122 was published on 2014-11-15, but the publisher provided no release notes content. As a result, there is no documented information about new features, fixes, breaking changes, or migration steps.
r121
Release r121 appears to be a small compatibility-oriented update. The only runtime code change is in argparse.py, where the module version is bumped and a Python 3 compatibility shim for basestring is added, alongside metadata and test/doc adjustments.
r12
Release r12 has no publisher-provided release notes. The diff shown for r11 to r12 appears to focus on documentation and packaging/legal files (Sphinx docs content and included artifacts), with no obvious runtime/API changes visible in the provided diff content.
Breakingr11
This release updates argparse to version 1.1, including improved error messages, more flexible version handling, and parser behavior tweaks around option parsing. The docs site content bundled in the repo is also updated to display version 1.1.
BreakingFeaturesr101
Release r101 updates argparse documentation and branding from version 1.0 to 1.0.1, adds a NEWS.txt file, and includes multiple behavioral fixes in the argparse implementation. The provided release notes are empty, so the substantive behavioral changes are not documented there.
Breakingr10
This release (r10) does not include any release notes or publisher-provided change log content. As a result, there is no documented information about new features, breaking changes, bug fixes, security updates, or migrations in the provided data.