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I have a fairly complex system that I want to test using python. My test code will interact with the system using a Python module I've already written. There are a few things however, that I haven't been able to figure out, regarding the testing framework. I haven't selected one yet, but obviously I feel directed to unittest.

  1. Passing parameters to the tests. I need to pass a specific ID to many different parts of my test code, depending on which component of the system I am testing. Does unittest provide for this? In other words, right now I just have a test script, which I run like this: ./testscript.py 123 win 32 How can I pass the same parameters similarly in a testing framework?

  2. unittest provides for setUp() and tearDown() methods, but they are called before/after each test method. How can I have functions that are called before/after the entire battery of tests in a TestCase?

Maybe unittest is not what I actually want to use?

asked Dec 14, 2011 at 16:10
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    for #1 see this stackoverflow.com/questions/1029891/… it can be done Commented Dec 14, 2011 at 16:29
  • Thanks F.C. that makes logical sense. I'm assuming the only way to actually get parameters to the modules I'm testing with then are globals. Commented Dec 14, 2011 at 20:17
  • So shall I accept my own answer, or would you like to make that an answer so I can accept it? Commented Dec 15, 2011 at 0:18
  • you could add the solution from that answer to yours and accept it in case someone comes here looking for a solution Commented Dec 15, 2011 at 13:36

2 Answers 2

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As for #2, it seems that setUpClass() and tearDownClass() are designed for this. The documentation even shows an example of using it to createExpensiveConnectionObject().

answered Dec 14, 2011 at 16:19
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I use tox to run my tests across multiple configurations. Some of my unittests skip certain tests if an optional module isn't there, which means I needed a check to make sure that the module detection code works. Tox doesn't have an easy way to specify any command-line arguments, so the easiest solution was to go through an environment variable.

F.C.'s pointer to python, unittest: is there a way to pass command line options to the app applies if you decide that extra arguments are the way to go.

answered Dec 14, 2011 at 17:36

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