.. currentmodule:: cloup.constraints .. highlight:: none Constraints =========== Overview -------- A :class:`Constraint` is essentially a validator for groups of parameters that: - has a textual description (:meth:`Constraint.help`) - when unsatisfied raises an :exc:`~click.UsageError` with an appropriate error message that is handled and displayed by Click. Constraints are **well-integrated with option groups but decoupled from them.** Indeed, you can use them to validate *any* group of parameters by providing their (destination) names (see `Specifying parameters to constrain by name`_). Constraints can also be applied **conditionally**, e.g. based on the value of a parameter (see `Conditional constraints`_). Constraints are easily composable using logical operators and you can easily change its description and/or error message (see `Combining and rephrasing constraints`_). Implemented constraints ----------------------- ``cloup`` uses the following convention: - **parametric** constraints are *subclasses* of ``Constraint`` and so they are camel-cased; - **non-parametric** constraints are *instances* of ``Constraint`` and so they are snake-cased. Parametric constraints ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. autosummary:: RequireExactly RequireAtLeast AcceptAtMost AcceptBetween Non-parametric constraints ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ =========================== ============================================================ :data:`require_all` Requires all parameters to be set. --------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ :data:`accept_none` Requires all parameters to be unset. --------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ :data:`all_or_none` Satisfied if either all or none of the parameters are set. --------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ :data:`mutually_exclusive` A rephrased version of ``AcceptAtMost(1)``. =========================== ============================================================ When is a parameter considered to be "set"? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cloup uses the following policy: - if the value is ``None``, the parameter is unset; - a parameter that takes multiple values is set if at least one value is provided; - a boolean **flag** is set only if ``True`` (since the default value is ``False``); - a boolean **non-flag** option is set if not ``None``, even if it's ``False``. .. admonition:: Possible sources of a value Cloup validates the values available in ``Context.params`` dictionary after parsing. The source of an option value can be (from higher to lowest priority): - the command-line user input - an environment variable (if you enabled it) - `Context.default_map `_ - the default value of the option (if defined). Conditional constraints ----------------------- :class:`If` allows to define conditional constraints:: If(condition, then, [else_]) - ``condition`` can be; - a concrete instance of :class:`~conditions.Predicate` - a parameter name; this is a shortcut for ``IsSet(param_name)`` - a list/tuple of parameter names; this is a shortcut for ``AllSet(*param_names)``. - ``then`` is the constraint checked when the condition is true. - ``else_`` is an optional constraint checked when the condition is false. Available predicates can be imported from ``cloup.constraints`` and are: .. autosummary:: IsSet AllSet AnySet Equal For example: .. code-block:: python from cloup.constraints import ( If, RequireAtLeast, require_all, accept_none, IsSet, Equal ) # If parameter with name "param" is set, # then require all parameters, else forbid them all If('param', then=require_all, else_=accept_none) # Equivalent to: If(IsSet('param'), then=require_all, else_=accept_none) # If "arg" and "opt" are both set, then require exactly 1 param If(['arg', 'opt'], then=RequireExactly(1)) # Another example... of course the else branch is optional If(Equal('param', 'value'), then=RequireAtLeast(1)) Predicates have an associated ``description`` and can be composed with the logical operators - ``~`` (not), - ``&`` (and), - ``|`` (or). For example: .. code-block:: python predicate = ~IsSet('foo') & Equal('bar', 'value') # --foo is not set and --bar="value" Usage with @option_group ------------------------ As you have probably seen in the :doc:`option-groups` section, you can easily apply a constraint to an option group by setting the ``constraint`` (keyword-only) argument or ``@option_group`` (or ``OptionGroup``): .. code-block:: python @option_group( 'Option group title', option('-o', '--one', help='an option'), option('-t', '--two', help='a second option'), option('--three', help='a third option'), constraint=RequireAtLeast(1), ) This code produces the following help section with the constraint description between square brackets on the right of the option group name:: Option group title: [at least 1 required] -o, --one TEXT an option -t, --two TEXT a second option --three TEXT a third option If the constraint description doesn't fit into the section heading line, it is printed on the next line:: Option group title: [this is a very long constraint description that doesn't fit into the heading line] -o, --one TEXT an option -t, --two TEXT a second option --three TEXT a third option If the constraint is violated, the following error is shown:: Error: at least 1 of the following parameters must be set: --one (-o) --two (-t) --three You can customize both the help description and the error message of a constraint using the method :meth:`Constraint.rephrased` (see `Combining and rephrasing constraints`_ for more). If you simply want to hide the constraint description in the help, you can use the method :meth:`Constraint.hidden`: .. code-block:: python @option_group( ... constraint=RequireAtLeast(1).hidden(), ) Specifying parameters to constrain by name ------------------------------------------ You can apply a constraint on any group of parameters providing their **destination names**, i.e. the names of the function arguments they are mapped to (by Click). For example: =============================================== =================== Declaration Name =============================================== =================== ``@option('-o')`` ``o`` ``@option('-o', '--out-path')`` ``out_path`` ``@option('-o', '--out-path', 'output_path')`` ``output_path`` =============================================== =================== This is useful when you need to apply a constraint on a group of parameters for which no ``OptionGroup`` is defined. You have two (non-equivalent) options: #. using the ``@cloup.constraint`` decorator #. using the constraint as a function inside the command callback (a ``Constraint`` is indeed *callable*). Usage with @constraint ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In essence, ``@cloup.constraint`` allows to include a constraint as part of the command "metadata", which opens new possibilities with respect to just using the constraint as a function: - it becomes possible to document the constraints in a section of the help page; note that this is disabled by default and can be enabled passing ``show_constraints=True`` to ``@command()`` (or ``cloup.Command``); - the sanity checks performed to detect *your* mistakes can be performed *before* parsing, just after the constraints applied to option groups are checked (see `Validation protocol`_); this is not of huge importance but a nice-to-have. The signature is simple: .. code-block:: python @constraint(constr: Constraint, params: Iterable[str]) where ``params`` is a list of parameter **destination names**; for example, an option ``--input-file`` is mapped (by Click) to the name ``input_file`` by default. Here's a meaningless example just to show how to use the API: .. code-block:: python @command('cmd', show_constraints=True) @option('--opt-1') @option('--opt-2') @option('--opt-3') @option('--opt-4') @constraint(mutually_exclusive, ['opt_1', 'opt_2']) @constraint(If('opt_1', then=RequireExactly(1)), ['opt_3', 'opt_4']) def cmd(opt_1, opt_2, opt_3, opt_4): print('ciao') .. _show-constraints: Passing ``show_constraints=True`` as above will produce the following section at the bottom of the command help:: Constraints: {--opt-1, --opt-2} mutually exclusive {--opt-3, --opt-4} exactly 1 required if --opt-1 is set Even in this case, you can still hide a specific constraint by calling the method :meth:`~Constraint.hidden` on it. Usage as functions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You may consider this option if you are not interested in documenting constraints in the help page *and* you find it more readable than ``@constraint``. .. code-block:: python from cloup.constraint import If, RequireExactly, mutually_exclusive # ... def cmd(opt_1, opt_2, opt_3, opt_4, opt_5): mutually_exclusive(['opt_1', 'opt_4']) If(Equal('opt_1', 'value'), then=RequireExactly(1))([ 'opt_2', 'opt_3', 'opt_4' ]) Calling a constraint is equivalent to call its :meth:`~Constraint.check` method. Combining and rephrasing constraints ------------------------------------ The available constraints should cover 99% of use cases but if you want to combine them or even just change their description and/or the error message, you can do that with very little code: - **to combine constraints** you can use the logical operators ``&`` and ``|``; both their validation logic and their description will be combined - **to edit the description and/or the error message** of a constraint, you can use the method :meth:`~Constraint.rephrased`, which wraps the original constraint with a :class:`Rephraser` - **to define a new constraint type wrapping another** constraint with minimal boilerplate, you can extend :class:`~WrapperConstraint`. Let's see some examples from Cloup itself. .. code-block:: python all_or_none = (require_all | accept_none).rephrased( help='provide all or none', error='either all or none of the following parameters must be set:\n{param_list}', ) ``rephrased()`` requires at least one argument between ``help`` and ``error``. When rephrasing an error, you can pass a format string containing ``'{param_list}'``, which will be replaced by a nicely formatted 2-space indented list of parameter names (one line per parameter). Let's see how you can define a new parametric constraint now: .. code-block:: python # Option 1: use WrapperConstraint. # WrapperConstraint is useful for defining a new constraint type # It delegates all methods to the wrapped constraint so you can # override only the methods you need to override. class AcceptBetween(WrapperConstraint): def __init__(self, min: int, max: int): # [...] self._min = min self._max = max # the min and max kwargs will be used for the __repr__ super().__init__(RequireAtLeast(min) & AcceptAtMost(max), min=min, max=max) def help(self, ctx: Context) -> str: return f'at least {self._min} required, at most {self._max} accepted' # Option 2: use a function. def accept_between(min, max): return (RequireAtLeast(min) & AcceptAtMost(max)).rephrased( help=f'at least {min} required, at most {max} accepted' ) Cloup uses ``WrapperConstraint`` internally to stick to the convention described in `Implemented constraints`_ and because it has some minor advantages like producing constraints having a prettier ``__repr__`` (shown in consistency errors): .. code-block:: python >>> AcceptBetween(1, 3) AcceptBetween(1, 3) >>> accept_between(1, 3) Rephraser(help='at least 1 required, at most 3 accepted') These differences are unimportant in most cases, so feel free to use functions in your code if you prefer it. Finally, if all this is not convenient for your case, just extend ``Constraint``, it's pretty easy. Use the code of existing constraints as a guide. Validation protocol ------------------- A constraint performs two types of checks and there's a method for each type: - :meth:`~Constraint.check_consistency` – performs sanity checks meant to detect mistakes of the developer; as such, they are performed *before* argument parsing (when possible); for example, if you try to apply a ``mutually_exclusive`` constraint to an option group containing multiple required options, this method will raise ``UnsatisfiableConstraint`` - :meth:`~Constraint.check_values` – performs user input validation and, when unsatisfied, raises a ``ConstraintViolated`` error with an appropriate message; ``ConstrainedViolated`` is a subclass of ``click.UsageError`` and, as such, is handled by Click itself by showing the command usage and the error message. Using a constraint as a function is equivalent to call the method :meth:`~Constraint.check`, which performs (by default) both kind of checks, unless consistency checks are disabled (see below). When you add constraints through ``@option_group``, ``OptionGroup`` and ``@constraint``, this is what happens: - constraints are checked for consistency *before* parsing - input is parsed and processed; all values are stored by Click in the ``Context`` object, precisely in ``ctx.params`` - constraints validate the parameter values. In all cases, constraints applied to option groups are checked before those added through ``@constraint``. If you use a constraint inside a callback, of course, consistency checks can't be performed before parsing. All checks are performed together after parsing. \*Disabling consistency checks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can safely skip this section since disabling consistency checks is a micro-optimization likely to be completely irrelevant in practice. Current consistency checks should not have any relevant impact on performance, so they are enabled by default. Nonetheless, they are completely useless in production, so I added the possibility to turn them off (globally) using the class method :meth:`Constraint.toggle_consistency_checks`. Just because I could. To disable them only in production, you should set an environment variable in the system you use for development, say ``PYTHON_ENV="dev"``; then you can put the following code in the entry-point of your program: .. code-block:: python import os # Enable consistency checks only if PYTHON_ENV is defined and equal to 'dev' Constraint.toggle_consistency_checks( os.getenv('PYTHON_ENV') == 'dev' ) Have I already mentioned that this is probably not worth the effort? Feature support --------------- .. note:: If you use command classes/decorators redefined by Cloup, you can skip this section. To support constraints, a ``Command`` must inherit from :class:`ConstraintMixin`. It's worth noting that ``ConstraintMixin`` integrates with ``OptionGroupMixin`` but it **doesn't** require it to work. To use the ``@constraint`` decorator, you must currently use ``@cloup.command`` as command decorator. Using ``@click.command(..., cls=cloup.Command)`` won't work. This may change in the future though.