.. _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_function(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