path: root/doc/en/example/pythoncollection.rst

Changing standard (Python) test discovery
===============================================

Ignore paths during test collection
-----------------------------------

You can easily ignore certain test directories and modules during collection
by passing the ``--ignore=path`` option on the cli. ``pytest`` allows multiple
``--ignore`` options. Example::

    tests/
    |-- example
    |   |-- test_example_01.py
    |   |-- test_example_02.py
    |   '-- test_example_03.py
    |-- foobar
    |   |-- test_foobar_01.py
    |   |-- test_foobar_02.py
    |   '-- test_foobar_03.py
    '-- hello
        '-- world
            |-- test_world_01.py
            |-- test_world_02.py
            '-- test_world_03.py

Now if you invoke ``pytest`` with ``--ignore=tests/foobar/test_foobar_03.py --ignore=tests/hello/``,
you will see that ``pytest`` only collects test-modules, which do not match the patterns specified::

    ========= test session starts ==========
    platform darwin -- Python 2.7.10, pytest-2.8.2, py-1.4.30, pluggy-0.3.1
    rootdir: $REGENDOC_TMPDIR, inifile:
    collected 5 items

    tests/example/test_example_01.py .
    tests/example/test_example_02.py .
    tests/example/test_example_03.py .
    tests/foobar/test_foobar_01.py .
    tests/foobar/test_foobar_02.py .

    ======= 5 passed in 0.02 seconds =======


Keeping duplicate paths specified from command line
----------------------------------------------------

Default behavior of ``pytest`` is to ignore duplicate paths specified from the command line.
Example::

    py.test path_a path_a

    ...
    collected 1 item
    ...

Just collect tests once.

To collect duplicate tests, use the ``--keep-duplicates`` option on the cli.
Example::

    py.test --keep-duplicates path_a path_a

    ...
    collected 2 items
    ...

As the collector just works on directories, if you specify twice a single test file, ``pytest`` will
still collect it twice, no matter if the ``--keep-duplicates`` is not specified.
Example::

    py.test test_a.py test_a.py

    ...
    collected 2 items
    ...


Changing directory recursion
-----------------------------------------------------

You can set the :confval:`norecursedirs` option in an ini-file, for example your ``pytest.ini`` in the project root directory::

    # content of pytest.ini
    [pytest]
    norecursedirs = .svn _build tmp*

This would tell ``pytest`` to not recurse into typical subversion or sphinx-build directories or into any ``tmp`` prefixed directory.

.. _`change naming conventions`:

Changing naming conventions
-----------------------------------------------------

You can configure different naming conventions by setting
the :confval:`python_files`, :confval:`python_classes` and
:confval:`python_functions` configuration options.  Example::

    # content of pytest.ini
    # can also be defined in tox.ini or setup.cfg file, although the section
    # name in setup.cfg files should be "tool:pytest"
    [pytest]
    python_files=check_*.py
    python_classes=Check
    python_functions=*_check

This would make ``pytest`` look for tests in files that match the ``check_*
.py`` glob-pattern, ``Check`` prefixes in classes, and functions and methods
that match ``*_check``.  For example, if we have::

    # content of check_myapp.py
    class CheckMyApp(object):
        def simple_check(self):
            pass
        def complex_check(self):
            pass

then the test collection looks like this::

    $ pytest --collect-only
    ======= test session starts ========
    platform linux -- Python 3.x.y, pytest-3.x.y, py-1.x.y, pluggy-0.x.y
    rootdir: $REGENDOC_TMPDIR, inifile: pytest.ini
    collected 2 items
    <Module 'check_myapp.py'>
      <Class 'CheckMyApp'>
        <Instance '()'>
          <Function 'simple_check'>
          <Function 'complex_check'>
    
    ======= no tests ran in 0.12 seconds ========

.. note::

   the ``python_functions`` and ``python_classes`` options has no effect
   for ``unittest.TestCase`` test discovery because pytest delegates
   detection of test case methods to unittest code.

Interpreting cmdline arguments as Python packages
-----------------------------------------------------

You can use the ``--pyargs`` option to make ``pytest`` try
interpreting arguments as python package names, deriving
their file system path and then running the test. For
example if you have unittest2 installed you can type::

    pytest --pyargs unittest2.test.test_skipping -q

which would run the respective test module.  Like with
other options, through an ini-file and the :confval:`addopts` option you
can make this change more permanently::

    # content of pytest.ini
    [pytest]
    addopts = --pyargs

Now a simple invocation of ``pytest NAME`` will check
if NAME exists as an importable package/module and otherwise
treat it as a filesystem path.

Finding out what is collected
-----------------------------------------------

You can always peek at the collection tree without running tests like this::

    . $ pytest --collect-only pythoncollection.py
    ======= test session starts ========
    platform linux -- Python 3.x.y, pytest-3.x.y, py-1.x.y, pluggy-0.x.y
    rootdir: $REGENDOC_TMPDIR, inifile: pytest.ini
    collected 3 items
    <Module 'CWD/pythoncollection.py'>
      <Function 'test_function'>
      <Class 'TestClass'>
        <Instance '()'>
          <Function 'test_method'>
          <Function 'test_anothermethod'>
    
    ======= no tests ran in 0.12 seconds ========

.. _customizing-test-collection:

Customizing test collection
---------------------------

.. regendoc:wipe

You can easily instruct ``pytest`` to discover tests from every Python file::

    # content of pytest.ini
    [pytest]
    python_files = *.py

However, many projects will have a ``setup.py`` which they don't want to be
imported. Moreover, there may files only importable by a specific python
version. For such cases you can dynamically define files to be ignored by
listing them in a ``conftest.py`` file::

    # content of conftest.py
    import sys

    collect_ignore = ["setup.py"]
    if sys.version_info[0] > 2:
        collect_ignore.append("pkg/module_py2.py")

and then if you have a module file like this::

    # content of pkg/module_py2.py
    def test_only_on_python2():
        try:
            assert 0
        except Exception, e:
            pass

and a ``setup.py`` dummy file like this::

    # content of setup.py
    0/0  # will raise exception if imported

If you run with a Python 2 interpreter then you will find the one test and will
leave out the ``setup.py`` file::

    #$ pytest --collect-only
    ====== test session starts ======
    platform linux2 -- Python 2.7.10, pytest-2.9.1, py-1.4.31, pluggy-0.3.1
    rootdir: $REGENDOC_TMPDIR, inifile: pytest.ini
    collected 1 items
    <Module 'pkg/module_py2.py'>
      <Function 'test_only_on_python2'>

    ====== no tests ran in 0.04 seconds ======

If you run with a Python 3 interpreter both the one test and the ``setup.py``
file will be left out::

    $ pytest --collect-only
    ======= test session starts ========
    platform linux -- Python 3.x.y, pytest-3.x.y, py-1.x.y, pluggy-0.x.y
    rootdir: $REGENDOC_TMPDIR, inifile: pytest.ini
    collected 0 items

    ======= no tests ran in 0.12 seconds ========