RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded while calling a Python object when running simple UnitTest due to GitPython unittests also being included

[jmartens]

While writing a unittest for a framework I ran into RecursionErrors:

I was able to reproduce it with this minimal test case:

from unittest import TestCase
from git import Repo
from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile, TemporaryDirectory


class TestRunner(TestCase):

    def test_check_repo(self):

        # Normal repository...
        with TemporaryDirectory() as repo_dir:
            repo = Repo.init(repo_dir, bare=False)

            # ... with untracked files
            with NamedTemporaryFile(dir=repo_dir, mode="r+", delete=False) as file:
                file.file.writelines(["This is a test file..."])

            # Add initial commit, so we can tag
            repo.index.add([file.name])
            repo.index.commit('Test commit for unittest')

If I run above example like:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\runpy.py", line 193, in _run_module_as_main
    return _run_code(code, main_globals, None,
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\runpy.py", line 86, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\__main__.py", line 18, in <module>
    main(module=None)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\main.py", line 101, in __init__
    self.runTests()
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\main.py", line 271, in runTests
    self.result = testRunner.run(self.test)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\runner.py", line 176, in run
    test(result)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\suite.py", line 84, in __call__
    return self.run(*args, **kwds)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\suite.py", line 122, in run
    test(result)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\suite.py", line 84, in __call__
    return self.run(*args, **kwds)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\suite.py", line 122, in run
    test(result)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\case.py", line 736, in __call__
    return self.run(*args, **kwds)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\case.py", line 684, in run
    self._feedErrorsToResult(result, outcome.errors)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\case.py", line 602, in _feedErrorsToResult
    result.addError(test, exc_info)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\runner.py", line 67, in addError
    super(TextTestResult, self).addError(test, err)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\result.py", line 17, in inner
    return method(self, *args, **kw)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\result.py", line 115, in addError
    self.errors.append((test, self._exc_info_to_string(err, test)))
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\unittest\result.py", line 185, in _exc_info_to_string
    tb_e = traceback.TracebackException(
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\traceback.py", line 493, in __init__
    context = TracebackException(
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\traceback.py", line 493, in __init__
    context = TracebackException(
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\traceback.py", line 493, in __init__
    context = TracebackException(
  [Previous line repeated 485 more times]
  File "C:\Program Files\Python38\lib\traceback.py", line 476, in __init__
    _seen.add(id(exc_value))
RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded while calling a Python object

As soon as I remove the line that actually commits the recursion errors disappear so I am I guessing some uncaught exception is thrown somewhere when doing a commit.

[Byron]

Maybe there is more to it, but should I expect the code above to run if pasted into a python file inside of the GitPython repository, and run with python 3.8.2?

It cannot find 'TestCase'.

[jmartens]

No this is a test case taken from my project, so you should need to create a new project which uses GitPython, create a test case in there and invoke it.

You might need some additional import statements as used in normal unittesting like from unittest import TestCase.

I have updated my example.

[Byron]

Thank you!
Since I am pretty sure that GitPython doesn't include tests in production code, I would hope the issue goes away in a more minimal example that isn't tied to a particular codebase anymore.

[Byron]

As part of spring cleaning, I am closing this issue as it was opened more than four months ago while still asking for feedback.

If this is a mistake or any other action should rather be taken, please let me know in the comments or create a new issue as digest of this one.
Thanks for your understanding and the work that undoubtedly went into this.