[Bug] os.environ["USER"] is set unconditionally in hydra/hydra/test_utils/test_utils.py

[ajw1980]

Since os.environ["USER"] is set and hydra-core installs a pytest plugin any other pytest tests that use the $USER environment variable will get overridden to use "test_user" as the user. I think this should probably be a conditional check or something. We had a test start failing that was using $USER and it took some time to figure out why that was being set to test_user.

[shagunsodhani]

Relevant line: https://github.com/facebookresearch/hydra/blob/master/hydra/test_utils/test_utils.py#L30

Making a PR that checks if the variable is already set.

[shagunsodhani]

Ideally we should unset the variable (if we do set it up).

[omry]

Can you provide a repro? I want to see why this is even being called for you.

What are you doing that gets the USER overwritten?
Generally speaking, test_utils is for internal usage and I am not expecting people to use it from external projects.

[ajw1980]

Simple test case to check the user. First pytest without extra options so hydra_pytest is enabled. Second test with hydra_pytest disabled on the command line

[andy.wettstein@tx1-lsbd445 mytest]$ cat test_user.py
import os

def test_user():
    assert os.environ["USER"] == 'andy.wettstein'
[andy.wettstein@tx1-lsbd445 mytest]$ pytest
======================================================================= test session starts =======================================================================platform linux -- Python 3.7.7, pytest-5.1.1, py-1.8.0, pluggy-0.13.0
rootdir: /home/andy.wettstein/mytest
plugins: cov-2.8.1, datadir-1.3.1, flake8-1.0.4, regressions-2.0.1, forked-1.2.0, parallel-0.1.0, xdist-1.32.0, remotedata-0.3.2, hydra-core-1.0.3
collected 1 item

test_user.py F                                                                                                                                              [100%]

============================================================================ FAILURES =============================================================================____________________________________________________________________________ test_user ____________________________________________________________________________

    def test_user():
>       assert os.environ["USER"] == 'andy.wettstein'
E       AssertionError: assert 'test_user' == 'andy.wettstein'
E         - test_user
E         + andy.wettstein

test_user.py:4: AssertionError
======================================================================== 1 failed in 0.19s ========================================================================


[andy.wettstein@tx1-lsbd445 mytest]$ pytest -p no:hydra_pytest
======================================================================= test session starts =======================================================================platform linux -- Python 3.7.7, pytest-5.1.1, py-1.8.0, pluggy-0.13.0
rootdir: /home/andy.wettstein/mytest
plugins: cov-2.8.1, datadir-1.3.1, flake8-1.0.4, regressions-2.0.1, forked-1.2.0, parallel-0.1.0, xdist-1.32.0, remotedata-0.3.2
collected 1 item

test_user.py .                                                                                                                                              [100%]

======================================================================== 1 passed in 0.08s ========================================================================

[omry]

Gotcha. so as soon as Hydra is installed it overwrites the USER in pytest tests via the plugin. that's nasty and definitely unintended.