Pytest-Explicit

Some tests you just don't want to run

Hey, I get it. Sometimes we write tests, but we don't actually want to wait for them to finish executing. Whether they're slow tests, they need some dependencies you don't have, or they aren't related to the work you do, there's some tests that just weren't meant to be run by devs in the age of CI/CD platforms. That's where pytest-explicit comes in.

This plugin allows developers to specify test markers that should be ignored by default when running pytest, but also quickly bypass this behaviour for CI/CD. Just add a --run-all flag to your pytest command for your test pipeline, and this plugin won't skip anything!

Configuring

If all you want to do is skip slow tests by default, you can stop reading now. Out-of-the-box, pytest-explicit will make any test marked slow require you to pass the --run-slow (or --run-all) for them to take up precious developer time.

Need more ignored tests? Just add the explicit-only option to your pytest config file, and pytest-explicit will pick up the markers specified and dynamically add --run-<marker> CLI options to pytest. Here's a sample setup.cfg file below!

[tool:pytest]
markers =
    slow: Marks a slow test
    memory_intensive: Marks a test that needs at least 16 gb RAM to run
    smoke: Marks a test that gives early alert to the health of the app
testpaths = tests
explicit-only =
    slow
    memory_intensive

With this configuration file, any test marked with either slow or memory_intensive won't run unless the appropriate CLI flags are passed!