collection: python_files=* / explicit collection

[blueyed]

I think it would be nice if pytest =(echo "def test_foo: pass") would work, i.e. it should consider any explicitly passed in file arguments for collection. (Zsh creates a temporary file here).

Also using -o 'python_files=*' does not appear to help here.

Related/via #4452.

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

im -1 on that one - if its not having a .py extension i don't want to see it collected as python module in core

[blueyed]

Fair point.

What about a warning then if python_files does not match *.py / ends with .py?

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

that sounds usefull

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

sidenote - https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/482459/specifying-the-file-extension-produced-by-zsh-process-substitution should set the temporary file thing right at least in part - it may need extra variables to make it pytohn-safe

[anarcat]

sidenote - https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/482459/specifying-the-file-extension-produced-by-zsh-process-substitution should set the temporary file thing right at least in part - it may need extra variables to make it pytohn-safe

this doesn't help for my use case which is a small script that I don't want to have to ship as an entire package (see also #3520)

[anarcat]

why was this closed? is this abandoned, or fixed? thanks!

[blueyed]

@anarcat a new issue / PR should be created based on #4476 (comment) probably. Please do so if you want to "own" / work on it.
This issue by itself appears to be a no-go for pytest itself.

[sarnold]

Seriously? I'm with @anarcat on this one, mainly to satisfy packaging QA tools that yell at you for shipping a "binary" with a .py extension. If i do that ^^ pytest not only doesn't find the file but refuses to even touch it. Is the answer really "tell the package QA tool to blow" and always keep the .py extension if you want pytest to check it? In this case it's not a "trivial"/small script but an actual daemon script.

[nicoddemus]

im -1 on that one - if its not having a .py extension i don't want to see it collected as python module in core

IIUC the proposal here is for python_files=* to be honored by the python plugin and try to collect anything, even if they don't have the .py extension. I believe the chance for misuse here is minimal. Here's the relevant code:

pytest/src/_pytest/python.py

Lines 173 to 182 in 8be9684

	def pytest_collect_file(path, parent):
	ext = path.ext
	if ext == ".py":
	if not parent.session.isinitpath(path):
	if not path_matches_patterns(
	path, parent.config.getini("python_files") + ["__init__.py"]
	):
	return
	ihook = parent.session.gethookproxy(path)
	return ihook.pytest_pycollect_makemodule(path=path, parent=parent)

All it would need is to remove the initial check for ".py" extension; of course I know the issue here is not one of implementation complexity, but opportunities for misuse; I'm just curious to know what are those opportunities, given that in this proposal the user must explicitly configure pytest to ignore the file extension.

[blueyed]

I agree with @nicoddemus here, re-opening for now.
Maybe @RonnyPfannschmidt and/or @asottile can explain/elaborate why this should not be allowed (through explicit configuration).

(@nicoddemus
The initial issue was for pytest foo.txt to work already, without changing python_files - i.e. any given file would be collected already, but I can see that the "python" plugin should only handle "python_files" really.)

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

at first glance we would have to reconfigure both the python import system and the assertion rewriter to do it correctly, if that's the complexity needed, then i don't want to see it in core a plugin will have to contain it

[nicoddemus]

Agreed, if it is more complex than a first glance shows, then we should avoid adding it to the core.

But if a simple implementation can be shown to support it, I would be OK with adding it to the core.

[blueyed]

The assert rewriting uses python_files (without validation), so it's not more complex than removing the check that @nicoddemus pointed out.
(As for having a separate config for the assert rewriting see blueyed#145 (which appears to not be wanted / is expected behavior for pytest itself though, and not really relevant here - just mentioning it since it shows what code is involved there)

A simple implementation to show support for it would probably overwrite the pytest_collect_file to not have the check then.