Basic usage

***********

Use the nosetests script (after installation by setuptools):

nosetests [options] [(optional) test files or directories]

In addition to passing command-line options, you may also put

configuration options in a .noserc or nose.cfg file in your home

directory. These are standard .ini-style config files. Put your

nosetests configuration in a [nosetests] section, with the -- prefix

removed:

[nosetests]

verbosity=3

with-doctest=1

There is also possiblity to disable configuration files loading (might

be useful when runnig i.e. tox and you don't want your global nose

config file to be used by tox). In order to ignore those configuration

files simply set an environment variable "NOSE_IGNORE_CONFIG_FILES".

There are several other ways to use the nose test runner besides the

*nosetests* script. You may use nose in a test script:

import nose

nose.main()

If you don't want the test script to exit with 0 on success and 1 on

failure (like unittest.main), use nose.run() instead:

import nose

result = nose.run()

*result* will be true if the test run succeeded, or false if any test

failed or raised an uncaught exception. Lastly, you can run nose.core

directly, which will run nose.main():

python /path/to/nose/core.py

Please see the usage message for the nosetests script for information

about how to control which tests nose runs, which plugins are loaded,

and the test output.

Extended usage

==============

nose collects tests automatically from python source files,

directories and packages found in its working directory (which

defaults to the current working directory). Any python source file,

directory or package that matches the testMatch regular expression (by

default: *(?:\b|_)[Tt]est* will be collected as a test (or source for

collection of tests). In addition, all other packages found in the

working directory will be examined for python source files or

directories that match testMatch. Package discovery descends all the

way down the tree, so package.tests and package.sub.tests and

package.sub.sub2.tests will all be collected.

Within a test directory or package, any python source file matching

testMatch will be examined for test cases. Within a test module,

functions and classes whose names match testMatch and TestCase

subclasses with any name will be loaded and executed as tests. Tests

may use the assert keyword or raise AssertionErrors to indicate test

failure. TestCase subclasses may do the same or use the various

TestCase methods available.

**It is important to note that the default behavior of nose is to not

include tests from files which are executable.** To include tests

from such files, remove their executable bit or use the --exe flag

(see 'Options' section below).

Selecting Tests

---------------

To specify which tests to run, pass test names on the command line:

nosetests only_test_this.py

Test names specified may be file or module names, and may optionally

indicate the test case to run by separating the module or file name

from the test case name with a colon. Filenames may be relative or

absolute. Examples:

nosetests test.module

nosetests another.test:TestCase.test_method

nosetests a.test:TestCase

nosetests /path/to/test/file.py:test_function

You may also change the working directory where nose looks for tests

by using the -w switch:

nosetests -w /path/to/tests

Note, however, that support for multiple -w arguments is now

deprecated and will be removed in a future release. As of nose 0.10,

you can get the same behavior by specifying the target directories

*without* the -w switch:

nosetests /path/to/tests /another/path/to/tests

Further customization of test selection and loading is possible

through the use of plugins.

Test result output is identical to that of unittest, except for the

additional features (error classes, and plugin-supplied features such

as output capture and assert introspection) detailed in the options

below.

Configuration

-------------

In addition to passing command-line options, you may also put

configuration options in your project's *setup.cfg* file, or a .noserc

or nose.cfg file in your home directory. In any of these standard ini-

style config files, you put your nosetests configuration in a

"[nosetests]" section. Options are the same as on the command line,

with the -- prefix removed. For options that are simple switches, you

must supply a value:

[nosetests]

verbosity=3

with-doctest=1

All configuration files that are found will be loaded and their

options combined. You can override the standard config file loading

with the "-c" option.

Using Plugins

-------------

There are numerous nose plugins available via easy_install and

elsewhere. To use a plugin, just install it. The plugin will add

command line options to nosetests. To verify that the plugin is

installed, run:

nosetests --plugins

You can add -v or -vv to that command to show more information about

each plugin.

If you are running nose.main() or nose.run() from a script, you can

specify a list of plugins to use by passing a list of plugins with the

plugins keyword argument.

0.9 plugins

-----------

nose 1.0 can use SOME plugins that were written for nose 0.9. The

default plugin manager inserts a compatibility wrapper around 0.9

plugins that adapts the changed plugin api calls. However, plugins

that access nose internals are likely to fail, especially if they

attempt to access test case or test suite classes. For example,

plugins that try to determine if a test passed to startTest is an

individual test or a suite will fail, partly because suites are no

longer passed to startTest and partly because it's likely that the

plugin is trying to find out if the test is an instance of a class

that no longer exists.

0.10 and 0.11 plugins

---------------------

All plugins written for nose 0.10 and 0.11 should work with nose 1.0.

Options

-------

-V, --version

Output nose version and exit

-p, --plugins

Output list of available plugins and exit. Combine with higher

verbosity for greater detail

-v=DEFAULT, --verbose=DEFAULT

Be more verbose. [NOSE_VERBOSE]

--verbosity=VERBOSITY

Set verbosity; --verbosity=2 is the same as -v

-q=DEFAULT, --quiet=DEFAULT

Be less verbose

-c=FILES, --config=FILES

Load configuration from config file(s). May be specified multiple

times; in that case, all config files will be loaded and combined

-w=WHERE, --where=WHERE

Look for tests in this directory. May be specified multiple times.

The first directory passed will be used as the working directory,

in place of the current working directory, which is the default.

Others will be added to the list of tests to execute. [NOSE_WHERE]

--py3where=PY3WHERE

Look for tests in this directory under Python 3.x. Functions the

same as 'where', but only applies if running under Python 3.x or

above. Note that, if present under 3.x, this option completely

replaces any directories specified with 'where', so the 'where'

option becomes ineffective. [NOSE_PY3WHERE]

-m=REGEX, --match=REGEX, --testmatch=REGEX

Files, directories, function names, and class names that match this

regular expression are considered tests. Default: (?:\b|_)[Tt]est

[NOSE_TESTMATCH]

--tests=NAMES

Run these tests (comma-separated list). This argument is useful

mainly from configuration files; on the command line, just pass the

tests to run as additional arguments with no switch.

-l=DEFAULT, --debug=DEFAULT

Activate debug logging for one or more systems. Available debug

loggers: nose, nose.importer, nose.inspector, nose.plugins,

nose.result and nose.selector. Separate multiple names with a

comma.

--debug-log=FILE

Log debug messages to this file (default: sys.stderr)

--logging-config=FILE, --log-config=FILE

Load logging config from this file -- bypasses all other logging

config settings.

-I=REGEX, --ignore-files=REGEX

Completely ignore any file that matches this regular expression.

Takes precedence over any other settings or plugins. Specifying

this option will replace the default setting. Specify this option

multiple times to add more regular expressions [NOSE_IGNORE_FILES]

-e=REGEX, --exclude=REGEX

Don't run tests that match regular expression [NOSE_EXCLUDE]

-i=REGEX, --include=REGEX

This regular expression will be applied to files, directories,

function names, and class names for a chance to include additional

tests that do not match TESTMATCH. Specify this option multiple

times to add more regular expressions [NOSE_INCLUDE]

-x, --stop

Stop running tests after the first error or failure

-P, --no-path-adjustment

Don't make any changes to sys.path when loading tests [NOSE_NOPATH]

--exe

Look for tests in python modules that are executable. Normal

behavior is to exclude executable modules, since they may not be

import-safe [NOSE_INCLUDE_EXE]

--noexe

DO NOT look for tests in python modules that are executable. (The

default on the windows platform is to do so.)

--traverse-namespace

Traverse through all path entries of a namespace package

--first-package-wins, --first-pkg-wins, --1st-pkg-wins

nose's importer will normally evict a package from sys.modules if

it sees a package with the same name in a different location. Set

this option to disable that behavior.

--no-byte-compile

Prevent nose from byte-compiling the source into .pyc files while

nose is scanning for and running tests.

-a=ATTR, --attr=ATTR

Run only tests that have attributes specified by ATTR [NOSE_ATTR]

-A=EXPR, --eval-attr=EXPR

Run only tests for whose attributes the Python expression EXPR

evaluates to True [NOSE_EVAL_ATTR]

-s, --nocapture

Don't capture stdout (any stdout output will be printed

immediately) [NOSE_NOCAPTURE]

--nologcapture

Disable logging capture plugin. Logging configuration will be left

intact. [NOSE_NOLOGCAPTURE]

--logging-format=FORMAT

Specify custom format to print statements. Uses the same format as

used by standard logging handlers. [NOSE_LOGFORMAT]

--logging-datefmt=FORMAT

Specify custom date/time format to print statements. Uses the same

format as used by standard logging handlers. [NOSE_LOGDATEFMT]

--logging-filter=FILTER

Specify which statements to filter in/out. By default, everything

is captured. If the output is too verbose, use this option to

filter out needless output. Example: filter=foo will capture

statements issued ONLY to foo or foo.what.ever.sub but not foobar

or other logger. Specify multiple loggers with comma:

filter=foo,bar,baz. If any logger name is prefixed with a minus, eg

filter=-foo, it will be excluded rather than included. Default:

exclude logging messages from nose itself (-nose). [NOSE_LOGFILTER]

--logging-clear-handlers

Clear all other logging handlers

--logging-level=DEFAULT

Set the log level to capture

--with-coverage

Enable plugin Coverage: Activate a coverage report using Ned

Batchelder's coverage module. [NOSE_WITH_COVERAGE]

--cover-package=PACKAGE

Restrict coverage output to selected packages [NOSE_COVER_PACKAGE]

--cover-erase

Erase previously collected coverage statistics before run

--cover-tests

Include test modules in coverage report [NOSE_COVER_TESTS]

--cover-min-percentage=DEFAULT

Minimum percentage of coverage for tests to pass

[NOSE_COVER_MIN_PERCENTAGE]

--cover-inclusive

Include all python files under working directory in coverage

report. Useful for discovering holes in test coverage if not all

files are imported by the test suite. [NOSE_COVER_INCLUSIVE]

--cover-html

Produce HTML coverage information

--cover-html-dir=DIR

Produce HTML coverage information in dir

--cover-branches

Include branch coverage in coverage report [NOSE_COVER_BRANCHES]

--cover-xml

Produce XML coverage information

--cover-xml-file=FILE

Produce XML coverage information in file

--cover-config-file=DEFAULT

Location of coverage config file [NOSE_COVER_CONFIG_FILE]

--cover-no-print

Suppress printing of coverage information

--pdb

Drop into debugger on failures or errors

--pdb-failures

Drop into debugger on failures

--pdb-errors

Drop into debugger on errors

--no-deprecated

Disable special handling of DeprecatedTest exceptions.

--with-doctest

Enable plugin Doctest: Activate doctest plugin to find and run

doctests in non-test modules. [NOSE_WITH_DOCTEST]

--doctest-tests

Also look for doctests in test modules. Note that classes, methods

and functions should have either doctests or non-doctest tests, not

both. [NOSE_DOCTEST_TESTS]

--doctest-extension=EXT

Also look for doctests in files with this extension

[NOSE_DOCTEST_EXTENSION]

--doctest-result-variable=VAR

Change the variable name set to the result of the last interpreter

command from the default '_'. Can be used to avoid conflicts with

the _() function used for text translation.

[NOSE_DOCTEST_RESULT_VAR]

--doctest-fixtures=SUFFIX

Find fixtures for a doctest file in module with this name appended

to the base name of the doctest file

--doctest-options=OPTIONS

Specify options to pass to doctest. Eg.

'+ELLIPSIS,+NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE'

--with-isolation

Enable plugin IsolationPlugin: Activate the isolation plugin to

isolate changes to external modules to a single test module or

package. The isolation plugin resets the contents of sys.modules

after each test module or package runs to its state before the

test. PLEASE NOTE that this plugin should not be used with the

coverage plugin, or in any other case where module reloading may

produce undesirable side-effects. [NOSE_WITH_ISOLATION]

-d, --detailed-errors, --failure-detail

Add detail to error output by attempting to evaluate failed asserts

[NOSE_DETAILED_ERRORS]

--with-profile

Enable plugin Profile: Use this plugin to run tests using the

hotshot profiler. [NOSE_WITH_PROFILE]

--profile-sort=SORT

Set sort order for profiler output

--profile-stats-file=FILE

Profiler stats file; default is a new temp file on each run

--profile-restrict=RESTRICT

Restrict profiler output. See help for pstats.Stats for details

--no-skip

Disable special handling of SkipTest exceptions.

--with-id

Enable plugin TestId: Activate to add a test id (like #1) to each

test name output. Activate with --failed to rerun failing tests

only. [NOSE_WITH_ID]

--id-file=FILE

Store test ids found in test runs in this file. Default is the file

.noseids in the working directory.

--failed

Run the tests that failed in the last test run.

--processes=NUM

Spread test run among this many processes. Set a number equal to

the number of processors or cores in your machine for best results.

Pass a negative number to have the number of processes

automatically set to the number of cores. Passing 0 means to

disable parallel testing. Default is 0 unless NOSE_PROCESSES is

set. [NOSE_PROCESSES]

--process-timeout=SECONDS

Set timeout for return of results from each test runner process.

Default is 10. [NOSE_PROCESS_TIMEOUT]

--process-restartworker

If set, will restart each worker process once their tests are done,

this helps control memory leaks from killing the system.

[NOSE_PROCESS_RESTARTWORKER]

--with-xunit

Enable plugin Xunit: This plugin provides test results in the

standard XUnit XML format. [NOSE_WITH_XUNIT]

--xunit-file=FILE

Path to xml file to store the xunit report in. Default is

nosetests.xml in the working directory [NOSE_XUNIT_FILE]

--xunit-testsuite-name=PACKAGE

Name of the testsuite in the xunit xml, generated by plugin.

Default test suite name is nosetests.

--xunit-prefix-with-testsuite-name

Enables prefixing of the test class name in the xunit xml.

This can be used in a matrixed build to distinguish between failures

in different environments.

If enabled, the testsuite name is used as a prefix.

[NOSE_XUNIT_PREFIX_WITH_TESTSUITE_NAME]

--all-modules

Enable plugin AllModules: Collect tests from all python modules.

[NOSE_ALL_MODULES]

--collect-only

Enable collect-only: Collect and output test names only, don't run

any tests. [COLLECT_ONLY]