Question

How can I use the option more than one time?

for example the command cpdoc:

cpdoc -d text -s x -s y -s z

I would like to have x,y,z in one array/data structure

import optparse
import os
import shutil


def main():
    p = optparse.OptionParser()
    folder = []
    p.add_option('--source', '-s',help="source folder")
    p.add_option('--destination', '-d')
    options, arguments = p.parse_args()

    if options.source and options.destination:
        if not os.path.exists(options.destination):
            os.makedirs(options.destination)
        for source in options.source:
            #do some stuff in each source

    else:
        p.print_help()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Answer 1

use the argparse module instead

Stolen without shame from the docs:

parser.add_option("-t", "--tracks", action="append", type="int")

If -t3 is seen on the command-line, optparse does the equivalent of:

options.tracks = []
options.tracks.append(int("3"))

If, a little later on, –tracks=4 is seen, it does:

options.tracks.append(int("4"))