#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys
from pprint import pprint
from argparse import ArgumentParser

from minecraft_query import MinecraftQuery

def main():
    parser = ArgumentParser(description="Query status of Minecraft multiplayer server",
                            epilog="Exit status: 0 if the server can be reached, otherwise nonzero."
                           )
    parser.add_argument("host", help="target hostname")
    parser.add_argument("-q", "--quiet", action='store_true', default=False,
                        help='don\'t print anything, just check if the server is running')
    parser.add_argument("-p", "--port", type=int, default=25565,
                        help='UDP port of server\'s "query" service [25565]')
    parser.add_argument("-r", "--retries", type=int, default=3,
                        help='retry query at most this number of times [3]')
    parser.add_argument("-t", "--timeout", type=int, default=10,
                        help='retry timeout in seconds [10]')

    options = parser.parse_args()

    try:
        query = MinecraftQuery(options.host, options.port,
                               timeout=options.timeout,
                               retries=options.retries)
        server_data = query.get_rules()
    except socket.error as e:
        if not options.quiet:
            print "socket exception caught:", e.message
            print "Server is down or unreachable."
        sys.exit(1)

    if not options.quiet:
        print "Server response data:"
        pprint(server_data)
    sys.exit(0)


if __name__=="__main__":
    main()

Add friendly and scriptable CLI