Problems with Option/Argument stacking behaviour. Unnessary sub-command is shown in help menu.

[tomclad]

Cement Issue Reporting and Feature Requests

Pre-Note:

• I have been using cement only from last 3-4 days. so, I am new to this framework. And I must say, I really like the framework @derks . Thank you for your work on this framework.
• Cement exactly solves the problem I was having with other frameworks.

System Information

• Cement Version: 3.0.8
• Python Version: 3.10.9
• Operating System and Version: Platform Linux-6.1.14-1-lts-x86_64-with-glibc2.37.
• OS : Arch Linux

Steps to Reproduce (Bugs Only)

• Below example is provided to reproduce bug.

What Am I trying to achieve

• I am trying to define single options / Arguments in single module (python files) using Controllers.
• Because I want to keep their functionality in separate file and then stack them onto base class.
• In the below example, Embedded class will be defined in separate python file, just like here we have added Items Controller code.

Example

The following is an [MCVE] (Minimal Complete
Verifiable Example) that reproduces the issue:

# INSERT EXAMPLE CODE HERE
from cement import App, Controller, ex
import sys

class Base(Controller):
    class Meta:
        label = 'base'
        arguments = [
            (['-c','--count'],
             {'help': 'takes numeric value',
              'type': int,
              'default': 1}),
        ]

    def _default(self):
        # if _default is not modified, then it is prints help by default as no commands
        # are parsed. help is printed even if self.app.pargs.name is parsed
        if len(sys.argv) == 1:
            self.app.args.print_help()

class Embedded(Controller):
    class Meta:
        label = 'embedded_controller'
        stacked_on = 'base'
        stacked_type = 'embedded'

        arguments = [
                (['-n','--name'],
                 {'help': 'takes name',
                  'action': 'store'}),
                ]

    def _post_argument_parsing(self):
        count = self.app.pargs.count
        name = self.app.pargs.name

        if name is not None:
            for i in range(count):
                print(name)


class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        handlers = [
            Base,
            Embedded,
        ]

with MyApp() as app:
    app.run()

Output of above Example

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -d, --debug           full application debug mode
  -q, --quiet           suppress all console output
  -c COUNT, --count COUNT
                        takes numeric value
  -n NAME, --name NAME  takes name

sub-commands:        <------------- unnecessary sub-commands
  {}         

Desired Output

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -d, --debug           full application debug mode
  -q, --quiet           suppress all console output
  -c COUNT, --count COUNT
                        takes numeric value
  -n NAME, --name NAME  takes name

[derks]

@tomclad is the intention to have completely separate cli's, that can also be used from a single unified cli? I assume similar to the way git used to be?

• Example 1: myapp [sub-controller]
• Example 2: myapp-sub-controller (as a separate app)

I have not seen this use case before, but i'll be happy to try it out and figure out what needs to happen in order to remove the empty sub-commands from Argparse.