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GeezerVison is showing github.com — gh-142389: Add support for backtick colorisation in argparse help text by hugovk · Pull Request #149375 · python/cpython

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@hugovk

@hugovk hugovk commented May 4, 2026 •
edited by bedevere-app Bot
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#142390 added support for displaying text enclosed in backticks in colour for the help description and epilogue.

This PR adds it for individual help.

Also add backticks to python -m test --help:

image

Will add to other stdlib CLIs in a followup.

  • Issue: Add support for colorizing code examples in argparse description/epilog #142389

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hugovk added 2 commits May 4, 2026 19:57
@hugovk
Add support for backtick colorisation in argparse help text
c51f27c
@hugovk
Backticks in regrtest
d8f6526
@hugovk
hugovk requested a review from savannahostrowski as a code owner May 4, 2026 18:13
@hugovk hugovk added the stdlib Standard Library Python modules in the Lib/ directory label May 4, 2026
@hugovk
hugovk requested a review from AA-Turner as a code owner May 4, 2026 18:13
@bedevere-app bedevere-app Bot added the awaiting core review label May 4, 2026
@bedevere-app bedevere-app Bot mentioned this pull request May 4, 2026
Add support for colorizing code examples in argparse description/epilog #142389
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@read-the-docs-community

read-the-docs-community Bot commented May 4, 2026 •
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Documentation build overview

📚 cpython-previews | 🛠️ Build #32534304 | 📁 Comparing 634cfe6 against main (10f950c)

  🔍 Preview build  

3 files changed
± library/argparse.html
± whatsnew/3.15.html
± whatsnew/changelog.html
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savannahostrowski
savannahostrowski requested changes May 4, 2026
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I think there's one edge case here that we haven't considered...and should before extending this to help text. Poking around on GitHub, flake8 uses double backticks to denote code in help text (I also found at least one instance of this in pytest as well but it's not as pervasive). So, right now, with these changes users would see something like this, where there are funky stray backticks and incorrect colouring:

Image

I think if we apply the new regex, update the docs and add a test or two, that should have us covered.

Other than that, I think this looks good. My preference would be to land this feature and then land application of backticks in a separate PR though (i.e. we can leave libregrtest changes for another PR?)

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Comment thread Lib/argparse.py Resolved

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@bedevere-app bedevere-app Bot added awaiting changes and removed awaiting core review labels May 4, 2026
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When you're done making the requested changes, leave the comment: I have made the requested changes; please review again.
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hugovk and others added 4 commits May 5, 2026 00:03
@hugovk @savannahostrowski
Update regex to match double backticks
254ef3c 
Co-authored-by: Savannah Ostrowski <[email protected]>
@hugovk
Fix bad GitHub UI suggestion
601a82b
@hugovk
Revert "Backticks in regrtest"
6da5763 
This reverts commit d8f6526.
@hugovk
Update docs, docstring and tests
138caa2
@hugovk

hugovk commented May 4, 2026

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Updated docs, docstring and added tests.

Removed the regrtest change, will be in a followup with other stdlib stuff.

I have made the requested changes; please review again.
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@bedevere-app bedevere-app Bot added awaiting change review and removed awaiting changes labels May 4, 2026
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Thanks for making the requested changes!

@savannahostrowski: please review the changes made to this pull request.
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bedevere-app Bot requested a review from savannahostrowski May 4, 2026 21:28
StanFromIreland
StanFromIreland reviewed May 4, 2026
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We apply color before width is calculated, leading to some odd line breaks.

With NO_COLOR:

Image

Whereas with color:

Image

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@hugovk hugovk mentioned this pull request May 4, 2026
gh-142389: Add backticks to stdlib argparse help to display in colour #149384
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@hugovk

hugovk commented May 4, 2026

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We apply color before width is calculated, leading to some odd line breaks.

There's a separate issue for this somewhere, and maybe even a PR?
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@hugovk

hugovk commented May 4, 2026

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My preference would be to land this feature and then land application of backticks in a separate PR though (i.e. we can leave libregrtest changes for another PR?)

Please see PR #149384.
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savannahostrowski
savannahostrowski reviewed May 4, 2026
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Comment thread Doc/whatsnew/3.15.rst Resolved

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Comment thread Lib/test/test_argparse.py Resolved

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hugovk added 2 commits May 5, 2026 01:30
@hugovk
Split What's New
67f92b7
@hugovk
Add extra regression test for double backticks
634cfe6
savannahostrowski
savannahostrowski approved these changes May 4, 2026
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Sweeeeet! :shipit: Thank Hugo!

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@bedevere-app bedevere-app Bot removed the awaiting change review label May 4, 2026
@bedevere-app bedevere-app Bot added the awaiting merge label May 4, 2026
@hugovk
hugovk enabled auto-merge (squash) May 4, 2026 22:43
@hugovk
hugovk merged commit ffe050a into python:main May 4, 2026
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@hugovk
hugovk deleted the 3.15-argparse-help-backticks branch May 4, 2026 22:58
@bedevere-app bedevere-app Bot removed the awaiting merge label May 4, 2026
@alexprengere

alexprengere commented May 5, 2026

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We apply color before width is calculated, leading to some odd line breaks.

There's a separate issue for this somewhere, and maybe even a PR?

I think this is the one #142035. The more colors applied, the more visible this will be 😉 .
IMO the clean solution would be to make some changes in textwrap.wrap, to handle graphemes and escape sequences (3.15 ships unicodedata.iter_graphemes). I would be happy to make those changes but I think this will be considered a new feature, thus should land in 3.16 now.
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@DavidCEllis DavidCEllis mentioned this pull request May 6, 2026
gh-148823: Avoid importing _colorize when creating an ArgumentParser #148827
Merged
This was referenced Oct 17, 2026
Python 3.15: AttributeError from argparse on every tmuxp command tmux-python/tmuxp#1094
Closed
cihai fails on Python 3.15: _theme clashes with argparse cihai/cihai-cli#359
Closed
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@StanFromIreland StanFromIreland StanFromIreland left review comments
@savannahostrowski savannahostrowski savannahostrowski approved these changes
@AA-Turner AA-Turner Awaiting requested review from AA-Turner AA-Turner is a code owner

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@hugovk @alexprengere @savannahostrowski @StanFromIreland
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