def _common_parser():
    """Returns a parser with common command-line options for all the scripts
    in the matdb suite.
    """
    import argparse
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
    parser.add_argument('--examples', action='store_true', help=
        'See detailed help and examples for this script.')
    parser.add_argument('--verbose', default=0, type=int, help=
        'See verbose output as the script runs.')
    parser.add_argument('--debug', action='store_true', help=
        'Print verbose calculation information for debugging.')
    return parser
