allow staticmethods to be detected as test functions

Allow a class method decorated `@staticmethod` to be collected as a test
function (if it meets the usual criteria).

This feature will not work in Python 2.6 -- static methods will still be
ignored there.

AUTHORS

@@ -118,6 +118,7 @@ Michael Droettboom
 Michael Seifert
 Michal Wajszczuk
 Mike Lundy
+Nathaniel Waisbrot
 Ned Batchelder
 Neven Mundar
 Nicolas Delaby

_pytest/python.py

@@ -271,10 +271,19 @@ class PyCollector(PyobjMixin, main.Collector):
         return self._matches_prefix_or_glob_option('python_classes', name)
 
     def istestfunction(self, obj, name):
-        return (
-            (self.funcnamefilter(name) or self.isnosetest(obj)) and
-            safe_getattr(obj, "__call__", False) and fixtures.getfixturemarker(obj) is None
-        )
+        if self.funcnamefilter(name) or self.isnosetest(obj):
+            if isinstance(obj, staticmethod):
+                # static methods need to be unwrapped
+                obj = safe_getattr(obj, '__func__', False)
+                if obj is False:
+                    # Python 2.6 wraps in a different way that we won't try to handle
+                    self.warn(code="C2", message="cannot collect static method %r because it is not a function (always the case in Python 2.6)" % name)
+                    return False
+            return (
+                safe_getattr(obj, "__call__", False) and fixtures.getfixturemarker(obj) is None
+            )
+        else:
+            return False
 
     def istestclass(self, obj, name):
         return self.classnamefilter(name) or self.isnosetest(obj)

changelog/2528.feature

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Allow class methods decorated as ``@staticmethod`` to be candidates for collection as a test function. (Only for Python 2.7 and above. Python 2.6 will still ignore static methods.)

testing/python/collect.py

@@ -143,6 +143,26 @@ class TestClass(object):
             "*collected 0*",
         ])
 
+    def test_static_method(self, testdir):
+        testdir.getmodulecol("""
+            class Test(object):
+                @staticmethod
+                def test_something():
+                    pass
+        """)
+        result = testdir.runpytest()
+        if sys.version_info < (2,7):
+            # in 2.6, the code to handle static methods doesn't work
+            result.stdout.fnmatch_lines([
+                "*collected 0 items*",
+                "*cannot collect static method*",
+            ])
+        else:
+            result.stdout.fnmatch_lines([
+                "*collected 1 item*",
+                "*1 passed in*",
+            ])
+
     def test_setup_teardown_class_as_classmethod(self, testdir):
         testdir.makepyfile(test_mod1="""
             class TestClassMethod(object):