Signatures

Signatures are used to define positional arguments of an option, command or the application. A signature consists of zero or more words separated by spaces.

A word can be a name, – and if the signature does not describe the positional arguments of an option – a repetition or an optional.

A name is a python identifier, that an argument will be bound to.

A repetition is a name followed by ..., it matches one or more arguments, all of which will be bound to the name.

An optional is a name or repetition followed by zero or more words enclosed in brackets.

For a short overview this is the grammar in EBNF:

signature = [ word { " " word } ]
word = name | repetition | optional ;
name = (* Any valid Python identifier *) ;
repetition = name "..." ;
optional = "[" (name | repetition) { word } "]" ;