Add specific testing instructions to contributing.rst

[jeremycarroll]

The issue

I wanted to start contributing to the project, the instruction "Run the tests to confirm they all pass on your system" is non-trivial, and took longer than really needed to put into effect.

The fix

I documented what I did to perform this task.

Open Concern

The first way I suggest running the tests is make test; however, this does not work for me.
I don't know what it would take to have success, but believe it is a legitimate way to achieve the goal.

The checklist

• [None ] Associated issue
• [Not appropriate] A news fragment in the news/ directory to describe this fix with the extension .bugfix, .feature, .behavior, .doc. .vendor. or .trivial (this will appear in the release changelog). Use semantic line breaks and name the file after the issue number or the PR #.

[uranusjr]

I believe pytest is recommended over py.test by Pytest folks now. Also you might want to consider Windows for these instructions :) Most of these won’t work on Windows.

[jeremycarroll]

I changed to pytest as suggested.

OTOH, I am not inclined (or able) to also document what is needed for Windows (other than mentioning run-tests.bat). I agree that the example config instructions won't work for most people. They are explicitly an example of what might be required, and I think they will be helpful even for people who have to modify them. I also think more examples from more platforms would be good.

[techalchemy]

this PR looks good, lets use it as a starting point, although I'm 99% sure that run-tests.bat doesn't work on windows. I'm sure we will hear about it to confirm :)

[uranusjr]

Yeah, once we put it in the docs people will come asking if it does not work :p