import py from myapp import MyApp def pytest_funcarg__mysetup(request): return MySetup(request) def pytest_addoption(parser): parser.addoption("--ssh", action="store", default=None, help="specify ssh host to run tests with") class MySetup: def __init__(self, request): self.config = request.config def myapp(self): return MyApp() def getsshconnection(self): host = self.config.option.ssh if host is None: py.test.skip("specify ssh host with --ssh") return py.execnet.SshGateway(host)