Python package structure, setup.py for running unit tests

Question

I'm not sure I'm organizing my package structure correctly or am using the right options in setup.py because I'm getting errors when I try to run unit tests.

I have a structure like this:

/project
   /bin
   /src
       /pkgname          
           __init__.py
           module1.py
           module2.py
   /tests
       __init__.py
       test1.py
       test2.py

My setup.py looks like this:

#!/usr/bin/env python                                                                                                                                        
from setuptools import setup, find_packages

setup(version='0.1',
      description='Trend following library',
      author='Nate Reed',
      author_email='[email protected]',
      packages=find_packages(),
      install_requires=['numpy'],
      test_suite="tests",                          
)

When I run 'python setup.py test' I get:

nate@nate-desktop:~/PycharmProjects/trendfollowing$ sudo python setup.py test
running test
running egg_info
writing requirements to UNKNOWN.egg-info/requires.txt
writing UNKNOWN.egg-info/PKG-INFO
writing top-level names to UNKNOWN.egg-info/top_level.txt
writing dependency_links to UNKNOWN.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
reading manifest file 'UNKNOWN.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
writing manifest file 'UNKNOWN.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
running build_ext
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "setup.py", line 11, in <module>
    test_suite="tests",
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/distutils/core.py", line 152, in setup
    dist.run_commands()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/distutils/dist.py", line 975, in run_commands
    self.run_command(cmd)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/distutils/dist.py", line 995, in run_command
    cmd_obj.run()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools/command/test.py", line 137, in run
    self.with_project_on_sys_path(self.run_tests)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools/command/test.py", line 117, in with_project_on_sys_path
    func()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools/command/test.py", line 146, in run_tests
    testLoader = loader_class()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/unittest.py", line 816, in __init__
    self.parseArgs(argv)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/unittest.py", line 843, in parseArgs
    self.createTests()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/unittest.py", line 849, in createTests
    self.module)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/unittest.py", line 613, in loadTestsFromNames
    suites = [self.loadTestsFromName(name, module) for name in names]
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/unittest.py", line 587, in loadTestsFromName
    return self.loadTestsFromModule(obj)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools/command/test.py", line 34, in loadTestsFromModule
    tests.append(self.loadTestsFromName(submodule))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/unittest.py", line 584, in loadTestsFromName
    parent, obj = obj, getattr(obj, part)
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'test1'

Do the test names need to match module names? Are there other conventions I need to follow in my package structure?

Nate Reed Nate Reed · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-28T23:42:33

Through some trial and error, I found the cause of this problem. Test names should match module names. If there is a "foo_test.py" test, there needs to be a corresponding module foo.py.

I found some guidelines on organizing package structure, which helped me reorganize my package into a structure I was confident in.

Python package structure, setup.py for running unit tests

1 Answers