How To Pass Arguments From Powershell Into Python Scripts

The aim of this page📝 is to demonstrate how to pass arguments to python scripts via PowerShell scripts. In PowerShell terminal, you can just literally type them. But in PowerShell scripts, you must use variables. I provide examples of positional arguments as well as optionals using argparse (the implementation of python’s internal keyword arguments).

1. positional arguments using sys.argv within python code

• in the first one I use sys.argv to parse a argument to signify a non-default behavior
• the example is from a script I use for in-place patching of Snowplow Analytics schemas (daily job/different story) — in edge cases, I am passing delete for the actual deletion via API
• run patch_schema -delete to perform the deletion or patch-schema for the default patch

powershell wrapper

python script utilising the `delete` arg passed via powershell

2. optionals (keyword arguments) using argparse modul within python code

• in the second, I am using argparse with named parameters to parse the arguments
• not that also the argparse named parameters (-k, and -v) are part of the $<arg> variable
• the usecase is my python script with which I update Hashicorp Consul from powershell terminal (daily job/different story)
• for more on argparse, see Python Arguments With Argparse module: The Template I Use for CLI Scripting

powershell wrapper with named arguments for key and value to be modified

python script parsing arguments with argparse module

Links

• https://stackoverflow.com/a/33639147/11082684
• argparse — Parser for command-line options, arguments and sub-commands