.. _xunitsetup:

====================================
extended xUnit style setup fixtures
====================================

.. _`funcargs`: funcargs.html
.. _`test parametrization`: funcargs.html#parametrizing-tests
.. _`unittest plugin`: plugin/unittest.html
.. _`xUnit`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XUnit

Python, Java and many other languages support xUnit_ style testing.
This typically involves the call of a ``setup`` ("fixture") method
before running a test function and ``teardown`` after it has finished.
``py.test`` supports a more fine-grained model of setup/teardown
handling by optionally calling per-module and per-class hooks.


module level setup/teardown
=============================================

If you have multiple test functions and test classes in a single
module you can optionally implement the following fixture methods
which will usually be called once for all the functions::

    def setup_module(module):
        """ setup up any state specific to the execution
            of the given module.
        """

    def teardown_module(module):
        """ teardown any state that was previously setup
            with a setup_module method.
        """

class level setup/teardown
=============================================

Similarly, the following methods are called at class level before
and after all test methods of the class are called::

    def setup_class(cls):
        """ setup up any state specific to the execution
            of the given class (which usually contains tests).
        """

    def teardown_class(cls):
        """ teardown any state that was previously setup
            with a call to setup_class.
        """

method and function level setup/teardown
=============================================

Similarly, the following methods are called around each method invocation::

    def setup_method(self, method):
        """ setup up any state tied to the execution of the given
        method in a class.  setup_method is invoked for every
        test method of a class.
        """

    def teardown_method(self, method):
        """ teardown any state that was previously setup
        with a setup_method call.
        """

If you rather define test functions directly at module level
you can also use the following functions to implement fixtures::

    def setup_function(function):
        """ setup up any state tied to the execution of the given
        function. Invoked for every test function in the module.
        """

    def teardown_method(function):
        """ teardown any state that was previously setup
        with a setup_function call.
        """
    
Note that it possible that setup/teardown pairs are invoked multiple
times per testing process.

.. _`unittest.py module`: http://docs.python.org/library/unittest.html