Issue with Root Args and config file

[efanibi25]

🐛 Bug report

An error
jsonargparse.util.ParserError: Problem in default config file "/home/main/Tools/.config/config.yaml" :: Configuration check failed :: No action for destination key "prepare.output" to check its value.
is raised when trying to parse args

To reproduce

parser = ArgumentParser(default_config_files=[os.path.join('.config/config.yaml')])
    parser.add_argument('-c','--config', action=ActionConfigFile,help="override config file")  
    parser.add_argument("-o","--output",help="Path to Dir",required=True)
    prepare = ArgumentParser(description="Prepare file to be uploaded")
    prepare.add_argument('-m','--media',help="Directory to retrive media files",required=True)
  subcommands = parser.add_subcommands()
    subcommands.add_subcommand('prepare',prepare, help="prepare mediafile for upload")

root argument must have required=True
root argument must also come before any group arguments.

Also Note: I have been able to fix this by setting root args to be the last argument

It strange because it also can parses correctly if I set required=False

Expected behavior

Parse arguments

Environment

• jsonargparse version 4.19.0
• Python version 3.8
• How jsonargparse was installed (e.g. `pip install jsonargparse):
• OS Linux

[mauvilsa]

Thank you very much for reporting. I don't quite understand the description and tried to reproduce the problem but unsuccessfully. Can you please improve the reproduction section, such that:

• the code snippet is correct: all imports, valid indentation, inclusion of parser.parse_args
• how to run the code to get the error, i.e. $ python cli.py ...

What I tried to do was to run the code

import os
from jsonargparse import ArgumentParser, ActionConfigFile

parser = ArgumentParser(default_config_files=[os.path.join('.config/config.yaml')])
parser.add_argument('-c','--config', action=ActionConfigFile,help="override config file")  
parser.add_argument("-o","--output",help="Path to Dir",required=True)
prepare = ArgumentParser(description="Prepare file to be uploaded")
prepare.add_argument('-m','--media',help="Directory to retrive media files",required=True)
subcommands = parser.add_subcommands()
subcommands.add_subcommand('prepare',prepare, help="prepare mediafile for upload")

print(parser.parse_args())

using as command

$ python cli.py -o . prepare --media value
Namespace(config=None, output='.', prepare=Namespace(media='value'), subcommand='prepare')

It executes without issue printing the namespace. Note that I ran it in a directory that only has the cli.py file and no configuration files. If the bug depends on there being config files, please also describe this.

[efanibi25]

Okay yeah here is a better description
Yes the bug does depend on the inclusion of a config file

Code
filename:test.py

content

import os
from jsonargparse import ArgumentParser, ActionConfigFile

parser = ArgumentParser(default_config_files=['.config/config.yaml'])
parser.add_argument('-c','--config', action=ActionConfigFile,help="override config file")  
parser.add_argument("-o","--output",help="Path to Dir",required=True)
prepare = ArgumentParser(description="Prepare file to be uploaded")
prepare.add_argument('-m','--media',help="Directory to retrive media files",required=True)
subcommands = parser.add_subcommands()
subcommands.add_subcommand('prepare',prepare, help="prepare mediafile for upload")

print(parser.parse_args())

configfile
path:config/config.yaml

content

output: test
prepare: 
    media: test

How to Trigger/Run
test.py prepare

ErrorRaised

Exception has occurred: ParserError
Problem in default config file ".config/config.yaml" :: Configuration check failed :: No action for destination key "prepare.media" to check its value.

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:


The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

  File "/src/argstest/test.py", line 9, in <module>
    subcommands = parser.add_subcommands()

[efanibi25]

As a note changing the code to this does work

========================================
import os
from jsonargparse import ArgumentParser, ActionConfigFile

parser = ArgumentParser(default_config_files=['.config/config.yaml'])
parser.add_argument('-c','--config', action=ActionConfigFile,help="override config file")
prepare = ArgumentParser(description="Prepare file to be uploaded")
prepare.add_argument('-m','--media',help="Directory to retrive media files",required=True)
subcommands = parser.add_subcommands()
subcommands.add_subcommand('prepare',prepare, help="prepare mediafile for upload")
parser.add_argument("-o","--output",help="Path to Dir",required=True)

print(parser.parse_args())

==================================

I just moved the root arguments to be added last

[mauvilsa]

I created a pull request fixing the issue, see #233. Please review the changes and test the code. You can install directly from that branch by running:

pip install "jsonargparse @ https://github.com/omni-us/jsonargparse/zipball/issue-232"

[mauvilsa]

Note that the problem is parser.add_subcommands() so another workaround is to first call add_subcommands and then add arguments.