FAQ

I see an error saying “could not import myproject.settings”

pytest-django tries to automatically add your project to the Python path by looking for a manage.py file and adding its path to the Python path.

If this for some reason fails for you, you have to manage your Python paths explicitly. See the documentation on Managing the Python path explicitly for more information.

How can I make sure that all my tests run with a specific locale?

Create a pytest fixture that is automatically run before each test case. To run all tests with the english locale, put the following code in your project’s conftest.py file:

from django.utils.translation import activate

@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
def set_default_language():
    activate('en')

My tests are not being found. Why not?

By default, pytest looks for tests in files named test_*.py (note that this is not the same as test*.py). If you have your tests in files with other names, they will not be collected. It is common to put tests under app_directory/tests/views.py. To find those tests, create a pytest.ini file in your project root with the contents:

[pytest]
python_files=*.py

When debugging test collection problems, the --collectonly flag and -rs (report skipped tests) can be helpful.

Does pytest-django work with the pytest-xdist plugin?

Yes. pytest-django supports running tests in parallel with pytest-xdist. Each process created by xdist gets its own separate database that is used for the tests. This ensures that each test can run independently, regardless of wheter transactions are tested or not.

How can I use manage.py test with pytest-django?

pytest-django is designed to work with the pytest command, but if you really need integration with manage.py test, you can create a simple test runner like this:

class PytestTestRunner(object):
    """Runs pytest to discover and run tests."""

    def __init__(self, verbosity=1, failfast=False, keepdb=False, **kwargs):
        self.verbosity = verbosity
        self.failfast = failfast
        self.keepdb = keepdb

    def run_tests(self, test_labels):
        """Run pytest and return the exitcode.

        It translates some of Django's test command option to pytest's.
        """
        import pytest

        argv = []
        if self.verbosity == 0:
            argv.append('--quiet')
        if self.verbosity == 2:
            argv.append('--verbose')
        if self.failfast:
            argv.append('--exitfirst')
        if self.keepdb:
            argv.append('--reuse-db')

        argv.extend(test_labels)
        return pytest.main(argv)

Add the path to this class in your Django settings:

TEST_RUNNER = 'my_project.runner.PyTestRunner'

Usage:

./manage.py test <django args> -- <pytest args>

Note: the pytest-django command line options --ds and --dc are not compatible with this approach, you need to use the standard Django methods of setting the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE/DJANGO_CONFIGURATION environmental variables or the --settings command line option.

How/where can I get help with pytest/pytest-django?

Usage questions can be asked on StackOverflow with the pytest tag.

If you think you’ve found a bug or something that is wrong in the documentation, feel free to open an issue on the Github project for pytest-django.

Direct help can be found in the #pylib IRC channel on irc.freenode.org.