[Python-Dev] Unit Test Guide

[Brett Cannon]

On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 7:43 AM, Giampaolo Rodola' <gnewsg at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 21 Feb, 12:30, "Virgil Dupras" <hs... at hardcoded.net> wrote:
>  > Hi devs,
>  >
>
>
> > Specifically, I'd like to know about files managements in tests. Is
>  > every test expected to clean after itself, or is there an automatic
>  > cleanup mechanism in place?
>
>  I have usually seen a lot of tests implemented like this:
>
>
>  from test.test_support import TESTFN, unlink
>  import unittest
>
>  class TestCase(unittest.TestCase):
>
>     def setUp(self):
>         self.file = None
>
>     def tearDown(self):
>         if self.file is not None:
>             self.file.close()
>         unlink(TESTFN)
>
>     def test_something(self):
>         self.file = open(TESTFN, 'r')
>         ...
>

test.test_support contains all of the various test-helping code that
is not in unittest or doctest.

>
>
>  > Even more specifically, I'd like to create
>  > a test for the proposed patch inhttp://bugs.python.org/issue2127so I
>
> > need to create a subdir with non-ascii character in it, then connect
>  > to a db in it. So, do I need to do the cleanup in the test? Is there a
>  > special path I can write to that will automatically be cleaned up?
>
>  I don't think so.
>  You could create a directory in setUp method by using tempfile.mkdtemp
>  and then remove it in tearDown.
>
>
>  > I guess I could find the answer in regrtest.py, but frankly, this unit
>  > is a little bit overwhelming.
>  >
>  > If there is no guide, am I the only one to think it would be a good
>  > idea to have one (Yeah, I could volunteer to write it)?
>
>  Don't know whether Lib/test/readme.txt could be considered a guide but
>  it contains a lot of useful information for developers.

A more appropriate doc is on the todo list to write.

-Brett