Abstract base class for formatting option help. OptionParser instances should use one of the HelpFormatter subclasses for formatting help; by default IndentedHelpFormatter is used.

Instance attributes: parser : OptionParser the controlling OptionParser instance indent_increment : int the number of columns to indent per nesting level max_help_position : int the maximum starting column for option help text help_position : int the calculated starting column for option help text; initially the same as the maximum width : int total number of columns for output (pass None to constructor for this value to be taken from the $COLUMNS environment variable) level : int current indentation level current_indent : int current indentation level (in columns) help_width : int number of columns available for option help text (calculated) default_tag : str text to replace with each option's default value, "%default" by default. Set to false value to disable default value expansion. option_strings : { Option : str } maps Option instances to the snippet of help text explaining the syntax of that option, e.g. "-h, --help" or "-fFILE, --file=FILE" _short_opt_fmt : str format string controlling how short options with values are printed in help text. Must be either "%s%s" ("-fFILE") or "%s %s" ("-f FILE"), because those are the two syntaxes that Optik supports. _long_opt_fmt : str similar but for long options; must be either "%s %s" ("--file FILE") or "%s=%s" ("--file=FILE").

__init__ (
        self,
        indent_increment,
        max_help_position,
        width,
        short_first,
        )

dedent ( self )

expand_default ( self,  option )

format_description ( self,  description )

format_heading ( self,  heading )

format_option ( self,  option )

format_option_strings ( self,  option )

format_usage ( self,  usage )

indent ( self )

set_long_opt_delimiter ( self,  delim )

set_parser ( self,  parser )

set_short_opt_delimiter ( self,  delim )

store_option_strings ( self,  parser )