Feature: Don't "skip" this file, "ignore" this file.

[dev351]

While the pytestmark = pytest.mark.skip in the global scope is useful for skipping all tests in a file, it would be useful to be able to "ignore" the file altogether using a similar global assignment. That is, be able to provide a marker in the test file that will hide the module from discovery in the same manner as --ignore=<test-file> does on the command line.

My motivation here is as follows. pytest.mark.skip emits SKIPPED messages for each test in the file when the -v flag. Whereas, it would also be useful to suppress that output altogether by simply "ignoring" the file.

My enhancement proposal is provide "ignore" behaviour around the follow global syntax (or similar):
pytestmark = pytest.mark.ignore

[nicoddemus]

Hi @dev351 thanks for writing.

May I ask why do you need to suppress the SKIPPED message for the test files? Seems strange because users won't get any feedback and might wonder if there's some problem with their configuration or environment that is not picking up the test modules that are being ignored.

[dev351]

May I ask why do you need to suppress the SKIPPED message for the test files?

Yes. I have a Python package skeleton project that provides a number of example test_*.py. These test files are useful references for developers writing their tests files in the same directory (tests/). Running pytest -v tests/ results in quite a bit of noise while your are trying to view the output of the run on your "real" test files.

The only ways I see to suppress the "SKIPPED" output on all these example tests was to:

1. reference these example files on the command line with the --ignore=<file-path> option. However, I find this approach tedious. Or
2. rename the test files outside of the standard discovery pattern. However, I was trying to emphasize correct test file names while having the files ignored during a test run.

My proposal, I feel, extends nicely from the existing mechanism for "skipping" all tests in a file.
It provides a means to automatically enable or disable an entire file for discovery by commenting or un-commenting out a single line inside each file (i.e., something like pytestmark = pytest.mark.ignore).

Thanks for your consideration.

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

there is multiple mechanisms for ignoring files already which actually prevents it from collection at all

so i don`t see any value in a ignored marker

[blueyed]

Related: #3730 ("silently skip a test").

[h-vetinari]

This would be extremely useful to me in several scenarios.

Pytest makes it easy (esp. through parametrization and parametrized fixtures) to test a cartesian product of parameter combinations. It's slightly less easy (not least because fixtures can't be reused as parameters) to reduce that cartesian product where necessary.

Often, certain combination simply do not make sense (for what's being tested), and currently, one can only really skip / xfail them (unless one starts complicated plumbing and splitting up of the parameters/fixtures).

But skips and xfails get output to the log (and for good reason - they should command attention and be eventually fixed), and so it's quite a simple consideration that one does not want to pollute the result with skipping invalid parameter combinations.

For this task, pytest.ignore would be the perfect tool. That this would be very intuitive is underlined by the fact that I wanted to open just such an issue before I found the exact same request here already.

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

@h-vetinari now ignoring a file and deselecting tests are 2 very different kinds of things, please open a new issue

i'm going to close this one as wont-fix as its about ignoring whole files

[h-vetinari]

@RonnyPfannschmidt
I think that #3730 is very close to the sort of issue I'd have opened, so I commented there. The only part that would be helpful to improve is to change the title to include the word "ignore" somehow.