diff --git a/lib/vsc/utils/script_tools.py b/lib/vsc/utils/script_tools.py
index 65ada20..fc704df 100644
--- a/lib/vsc/utils/script_tools.py
+++ b/lib/vsc/utils/script_tools.py
@@ -34,12 +34,12 @@
 import os
 import sys
 
+from configargparse import ArgParser
 from copy import deepcopy
 
 import logging
 from vsc.utils import fancylogger
 from vsc.utils.availability import proceed_on_ha_service
-from vsc.utils.generaloption import SimpleOption
 from vsc.utils.lock import lock_or_bork, release_or_bork, LOCKFILE_DIR, LOCKFILE_FILENAME_TEMPLATE
 from vsc.utils.nagios import (
     SimpleNagios, NAGIOS_CACHE_DIR, NAGIOS_CACHE_FILENAME_TEMPLATE, exit_from_errorcode,
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@
 MAX_RTT = 2 * MAX_DELTA + 1
 
 
+
 def _script_name(full_name):
     """Return the script name without .py extension if any. This assumes that the script name does not contain a
     dot in case of lacking an extension.
@@ -102,7 +103,25 @@ def _merge_options(options):
     return opts
 
 
-class ExtendedSimpleOption(SimpleOption):
+class ConfigOption:
+    """
+    Allow using configargparse.ArgParser instead of GeneralOption but with the same
+    options-specifying syntax
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, options, config_files=None):
+        self.parser = ArgParser(auto_env_var_prefix='')
+
+        if config_files:
+            self.parser.config_file_parser(config_files)
+
+        for option, (help_str, type_, action, default_value) in options.items():
+            self.parser.add(f'--{option}', help=help_str, type=type_, action=action, default=default_value)
+
+        self.options = self.parser.parse_args()
+
+
+class ExtendedSimpleOption(ConfigOption):
     """
     Extends the SimpleOption class to allow other checks to occur at script prologue and epilogue.
 
@@ -227,6 +246,8 @@ def critical_exception_handler(self, tp, value, traceback):
         self.critical(message)
 
 
+
+
 class CLI:
     """
     Base class to implement cli tools that require timestamps, nagios checks, etc.
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8fe1c4e..0614ce8 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -38,10 +38,11 @@
     'lockfile >= 0.9.1',
     'netifaces',
     'jsonpickle',
+    'configargparse',
 ]
 
 PACKAGE = {
-    'version': '2.2.6',
+    'version': '2.3.0',
     'author': [ag, sdw],
     'maintainer': [ag, sdw],
     'excluded_pkgs_rpm': ['vsc', 'vsc.utils'],  # vsc is default, vsc.utils is provided by vsc-base