[From http://code.google.com/p/argparse/issues/detail?id=61]

It should be documented clearly that only the arguments present on the parent parser at the time ArgumentParser is called will be included in the parser.

>>> parent = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
>>> child = argparse.ArgumentParser(parents=[parent])
>>> parent.add_argument('--foo', action='store_true')
>>> child.parse_args(['--foo'])
usage: [-h]
: error: unrecognized arguments: --foo

I removed 3.3, since it currently means “won’t be done for 3.2, so note for later.” I don’t know if the report applies to 3.1 (doc fixes go into stable releases too), so I’m not adding it.

Ah, thanks for the fix. No it doesn't need to go in 3.1 - argparse is only in 2.7 and 3.2.

New changeset d288666c1d58 by Steven Bethard in branch '3.2':
Issue #9343: Document that argparse parent parsers must be configured before their children.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/d288666c1d58

New changeset 15e98607555d by Steven Bethard in branch '2.7':
Issue #9343: Document that argparse parent parsers must be configured before their children. (Merge from 3.2.)
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/15e98607555d

New changeset 8bdc20468cbc by Steven Bethard in branch 'default':
Issue #9343: Document that argparse parent parsers must be configured before their children. (Merge from 3.2.)
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/8bdc20468cbc

I added some documentation in the "parents" section of the argparse docs.