parser.addoption(type="float") backwards incompatibility

[pytestbot]

Originally reported by: Floris Bruynooghe (BitBucket: flub, GitHub: flub)

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The parser.addoption(type="...") api has changed from optparse to argparse and the conversion from "int" -> int and "string" -> string is handled however float is not available. This causes existing plugins to fail without any notice.

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• Bitbucket: https://bitbucket.org/pytest-dev/pytest/issue/457

[pytestbot]

Original comment by holger krekel (BitBucket: hpk42, GitHub: hpk42):

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Is this a py2/py3 thing? https://docs.python.org/dev/library/argparse.html seems to suggest that type=float is supported.

[pytestbot]

Original comment by Floris Bruynooghe (BitBucket: flub, GitHub: flub):

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I think in the optparse world it was type="float", but will check. Re-reading this description it is not the best in the world...

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

@flub still an issue or can we close this?