I'm using Python's `argparse` module to define optional arguments.
I'm calling the `argparse.add_argument` method to add both short and long arguments, but I notice that the generated help message lists some information twice. For example:
```
argparse.add_argument('-s', '--service',...)
```
will generate

```
-s SERVICE, --service SERVICE
```
and when I add a `choices` argument, even the choices list is repeated. I think it would be more useful to suppress the repetition to produce output such as
```
-s|--service SERVICE ...
```
instead with both the meta var as well as choices etc. printed only once.

GNU programs seem to use this format:

   $ ls --help | grep ',.*=[A-Z]'
     -I, --ignore=PATTERN       do not list implied entries matching shell PATTERN
     -T, --tabsize=COLS         assume tab stops at each COLS instead of 8
     -w, --width=COLS           set output width to COLS.  0 means no limit

The argparse format is more accurate, but also less practical, especially for long variable names.

This is normal behavior for argparse.

People have asked before for a more compact display.  I remember suggesting changes to the HelpFormatter subclass on Stackoverflow questions, and there's probably one or more bug/issues addressing the same issue.

https://bugs.python.org/issue29626
Issue with spacing in argparse module while using help

This deals with a extra space that is produced when a blank metavar is used to produce a more compact help line

   -s , --service   help text

My answers have links to relevant SO questions.

Also

https://bugs.python.org/issue27303
[argparse] Unify options in help output