Simple Python I/O using argparse

better_io.py

import argparse

from pathlib import Path

"""
Run this by doing:

$ python3 better_io.py /path/to/file

This version uses the `type` parameter of the `add_argument` function to pass
the string given on the command line into a `pathlib.Path` object. These are
easier to use, and it also guarantees that what we got was a properly formatted
string.
"""


def print_file_contents(filename: Path):
    print(filename.read_text())


if __name__ == '__main__':
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument('file_name', type=Path, help='the path to the file')
    args = parser.parse_args()

    print_file_contents(args.file_name)

easy_io.py

import argparse

"""
Run this by doing:

$ python3 easy_io.py /path/to/file
"""


def print_file_contents(filename):
    with open(filename) as f:
        print(f.read())


if __name__ == '__main__':
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument('file_name', help='the path to the file')
    args = parser.parse_args()

    print_file_contents(args.file_name)