Python unittest does not run tests

Question

I made a small project called demo, with a single test in it

import unittest


class Test(unittest.TestCase):


    def testName1(self):
        self.assertEqual(5+9, 14)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    #import sys;sys.argv = ['', 'Test.testName']
    unittest.main()

However, from command line

ThinkPad-T520:~/workspacep/demo$ python -m unittest

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 0 tests in 0.000s

OK

Why doesn't this work? In general, how can I run all unit tests from command line with a single line?

The structure of the directory is

demo
    tests
          demo_test1.py  __init__.py

Well, for one thing, if you're executing python -m unittest, then inside your script, __name__ is NOT equal to "main". — John Gordon
– John Gordon, Commented Aug 25, 2018 at 4:45
Please see edits of original question to see directory structure. — Baron Yugovich
– Baron Yugovich, Commented Aug 25, 2018 at 16:00
Also, John Gordon, what do you mean? You can see the code above, it is main. — Baron Yugovich
– Baron Yugovich, Commented Aug 25, 2018 at 16:09

Multihunter · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-27 04:26:18Z

28

There are three gotcha's that I know of:

Your tests in your TestCases need to be named test_*
Your test files need to be named: test*.py (by default, you can change it with the -p flag when running the tests). e.g. test_demo1.py
Your tests folder needs to have an __init__.py file in it, or else it won't be considered a valid location to import from.

So, for #1, you need to rename the test to test_name_1. And for #2, there's two options:

A - Restructure your files like this:

demo
    tests
        __init__.py
        test_demo1.py

Then run python -m unittest and it should find the test cases.

B - Just run it like: python -m unittest discover -p *test.py

answered Mar 27, 2019 at 4:26

Multihunter

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2 Comments

interlinguex Over a year ago

That the test cases' names need to begin with test_ is correct, but names of my test files actually needed to begin with test_ as well. The file __init__.py was not required (I'm doodling around with the unittest module and just have a single directory). When respecting these rules, the command python -m unittest worked with or without any discover options. Maybe those are recent changes, I'm on python 3.8.11.

Multihunter Over a year ago

The official documentation (docs.python.org/3/library/unittest.html#unittest-test-discovery) states that the pattern is test*.py, not test_*.py for file names (I manually checked this, too). I see no discrepancy with my answer for the rest of your comment: this situation is for test files inside a folder (needing __init__.py) and using defaults (so, don't need add discover to the command)

k.wahome · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-25 06:09:53Z

11

I fought with the same exact problem a while ago and I solved it by using test discovery command.

python -m unittest discover -s .

You can pass in your test file pattern as well and a whole other options https://docs.python.org/2/library/unittest.html#test-discovery

edited Aug 25, 2018 at 6:09

answered Aug 25, 2018 at 6:00

k.wahome

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3 Comments

Baron Yugovich Over a year ago

Isn't the default using discover even without passing it explicitly in the command?

Baron Yugovich Over a year ago

Btw, this failed for me as well, got the same result as above, Ran 0 tests

k.wahome Over a year ago

@BaronYugovich It probably failed because the default pattern to match test files is test*.py while the test file name demo_test1.py can only be matched by "*_test*.py" Try python -m unittest discover -s . -p "*test*.py"

jh314 · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-25 02:57:54Z

2

You need to pass in a list of modules.

For example, if your test file is foo.py, then you can run python -m unittest foo.

answered Aug 25, 2018 at 2:57

jh314

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1 Comment

Baron Yugovich Over a year ago

No, that's what I want to avoid. I want it to run all tests in a project. Assume this is a huge project with 100s of modules, I don't want to pass them explicitly.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-11 09:24:31Z

0

For me (running tests from IntelliJ IDEA) I had to remove the class' 'Run configuration'. Earlier on I had wrongly imported the unittest as _pytest.unittest and ran the test class. Of course that didn't work.

I corrected the module import, but the 'run configuration' was still there, causing it to run as a Python script and not as 'Python tests'.

edited May 11, 2021 at 9:24

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 15, 2019 at 12:00

BartT

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