Using IDLE to run Python PyUnit unit tests
python, python-idle, unit-testing
Solution
No one answered (I find that if there aren't any answers in the first few minutes, the likelihood of an answer goes down significantly :), so I kept researching this myself.
Not sure if this is the most elegant solution or not, but changing:
if __name__ == '__main__':
unittest.main()
to
if __name__ == '__main__':
try: unittest.main()
except SystemExit: pass
seemed to do the trick.
I guess the problem is that (according to http://coding.derkeiler.com/Archive/Python/comp.lang.python/2003-11/0239.html) the unittest module finishes by calling sys.exit which is apparently problematic for IDLE since it wants to keep the Python shell running, whereas it's not a problem when you run it from the command line, which expects to dump you back to your already-running command line anyway.
I don't know if this solution, catching the SystemExit event and ignoring it, is problematic at all, but it seems to work for the all-tests-pass and some-tests-fail cases I checked.
Also: see this StackOverFlow Post: What code can I use to check if Python is running in IDLE? , which provides a test to see whether the program is being run from within IDLE or not.
Problem
Is there a way, within IDLE, to run the PyUnit (unittest module) unit tests directly? I ask because I have a short test module and when I run it with python mymodule.py from the Cygwin shell I get all tests passed, but when I use Run->Run Module from IDLE the tests pass but then I get an exception (SystemExit: False). For example, here is a sample test module to reproduce this: ``` #!/usr/bin/python import unittest class fooTests(unittest.TestCase): def setUp(self): self.foo = "bar" def testDummyTest(self): self.assertTrue(True) def testDummyTestTwo(self): self.assertEquals("foo", "foo") def tearDown(self): self.foo = None if __name__ == '__main__': unittest.main() ``` When I run this from the Cygwin shell with python fooTests.py it produces: ``` $ python fooTests.py .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ran 2 tests in 0.000s OK ``` But when I'm editing fooTests.py within IDLE and I do Run -> Run Module, the new Python Shell spawned by IDLE produces: ``` >>> ================================ RESTART ================================ >>> .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ran 2 tests in 0.031s OK Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Some\path\info\I\shortened\fooTests.py", line 20, in <module> unittest.main() File "C:\Python26\lib\unittest.py", line 817, in __init__ self.runTests() File "C:\Python26\lib\unittest.py", line 865, in runTests sys.exit(not result.wasSuccessful()) SystemExit: False >>> ``` What am I doing wrong, to produce this traceback, and especially how can I fix it so that I can just do Run->Run Module (or F5) within IDLE to run the unit tests quickly? (This surely must be a simple question, but my quick attempts to figure it out have proven fruitless.)