Python argparse: Lots of choices results in ugly help output

I am basically repeating what Ernest said - to avoid the ugly long list of choices, set metavar='' for the choice-based arguments (though it won't get rid of the whitespace between the argument and comma (e.g. -o , instead of -o,). You can then describe available choices in detail in general description (RawDescriptionHelpFormatter is useful here if you want them listed with obvious indentation).

I do not understand why Ernest's answer was voted down. This code

import argparse

servers = [ "ApaServer", "BananServer", "GulServer", "SolServer", "RymdServer",
            "SkeppServer", "HavsServer", "PiratServer", "SvartServer", "NattServer", "SovServer" ]

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="A program to update components on servers.")
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument('-l', '--list', dest="update", action='store_false', default=False, help='list server components')
group.add_argument('-u', '--updatepom', dest="update", action='store_true', help='update server components')
parser.add_argument('-o', '--only', choices=servers, help='Space separated list of case sensitive server names to process.  Allowed values are '+', '.join(servers), metavar='')
parser.add_argument('-s', '--skip', choices=servers, help='Space separated list of case sensitive server names to exclude from processing.  Allowed values are '+', '.join(servers), metavar='')
args = parser.parse_args()

produces the following help output

usage: run.py [-h] [-l | -u] [-o] [-s]

A program to update components on servers.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help       show this help message and exit
  -l, --list       list server components
  -u, --updatepom  update server components
  -o , --only      Space separated list of case sensitive server names to
                   process. Allowed values are ApaServer, BananServer,
                   GulServer, SolServer, RymdServer, SkeppServer, HavsServer,
                   PiratServer, SvartServer, NattServer, SovServer
  -s , --skip      Space separated list of case sensitive server names to
                   exclude from processing. Allowed values are ApaServer,
                   BananServer, GulServer, SolServer, RymdServer, SkeppServer,
                   HavsServer, PiratServer, SvartServer, NattServer, SovServer

This is hopefully what original post was looking for.

There is no need to subclass anything. Simply pass a metavar argument with the string you want to appear in the help message.

See the argparse documentation for details.