module has no attribute config when accessing pytest.config in conftest

[quodlibetor]

• Include a detailed description of the bug or suggestion

I am doing some one-time initialization in a conftest.py that I would like to have relative to the rootdir. Theoretically I should be able to do:

# file myproj/tests/conftest.py
import conftest
data_dir = conftest.config.rootdir.join('some/dir')

And indeed, this usually succeeds:

$ pytest --collect-only -k test_get_tasks
========================================================= test session starts
platform darwin -- Python 2.7.11, pytest-2.9.1, py-1.4.31, pluggy-0.3.1
rootdir: /Users/bwm/projects/Xxx, inifile: tox.ini
plugins: cov-1.7.0, env-0.6.0
collected .. items
<Module 'xxx/tests/resource/test_tasks.py'>
  <Function 'test_get_tasks_works_with_empty_tasks[/tasks]'>
  <Function 'test_get_tasks'>

============================================== .. tests deselected by '-ktest_get_tasks'
==================================================== .. deselected in 1.02 seconds

But when actually running with a fully-specified path this fails:

$ py.test xxx/tests/resource/test_tasks.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/bwm/findable/virtualenvs/xxx/lib/python2.7/site-packages/_pytest/config.py", line 320, in _importconftest
    mod = conftestpath.pyimport()
  File "/Users/bwm/findable/virtualenvs/xxx/lib/python2.7/site-packages/py/_path/local.py", line 650, in pyimport
    __import__(modname)
  File "/Users/bwm/projects/Xxx/xxx/tests/conftest.py", line 13, in <module>
    datadir = pytest.config.rootdir.join('xxx/tests/data')
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'config'
ERROR: could not load /Users/bwm/projects/Xxx/xxx/tests/conftest.py

• Minimal example if possible

Trying to reproduce this, I'm unable to get it to succeed in any way:

$ tree
.
├── tests
│   ├── conftest.py
│   └── test_blar.py
└── tox.ini

$ cat tox.ini
[pytest]
testpaths = ./tests

$ cat tests/conftest.py
import pytest
pytest.config

$ cat tests/test_bar.py
def test_something():
    assert 1

Gives me the same error:

$ py.test
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/bwm/findable/virtualenvs/tmp-fb94e9e979285d9f/lib/python2.7/site-packages/_pytest/config.py", line 543, in importconftest
    mod = conftestpath.pyimport()
  File "/Users/bwm/findable/virtualenvs/tmp-fb94e9e979285d9f/lib/python2.7/site-packages/py/_path/local.py", line 650, in pyimport
    __import__(modname)
  File "/Users/bwm/findable/virtualenvs/tmp-fb94e9e979285d9f/anything/tests/conftest.py", line 2, in <module>
    pytest.config
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'config'
ERROR: could not load /Users/bwm/findable/virtualenvs/tmp-fb94e9e979285d9f/anything/tests/conftest.py

No combination of options seems to be able to make this work. I'm no longer sure that this is supposed to work, but it seems weird that it works for me in my previously most-common use-case.

• pip list of the virtual environment you are using

$ pip list
pip (8.0.2)
py (1.4.31)
pytest (2.7.2)  # also tested with 2.8.7 and 2.9.1
setuptools (20.0)
wheel (0.29.0)

• py.test and operating system versions

py.test 2.7.2, 2.8.7, 2.9.1
OSX 10.9.5, Darwin 13.4.0

[nicoddemus]

Thanks for the report!

While I agree this should be fixed, keep in mind that using pytest.config is discouraged.

For your use case I would recommend using a fixture instead:

import pytest

@pytest.fixture(scope='session')
def data_dir(pytestconfig):
    return pytestconfig.rootdir.join('some/dir')

[quodlibetor]

Thanks for the fast response!

Is there a way to automatically use a fixture before any tests are run? Really that's what I'm trying to fake.

[The-Compiler]

Is there a way to automatically use a fixture before any tests are run? Really that's what I'm trying to fake.

Sure! You can use an autouse session-scoped fixture:

@pytest.fixture(scope='session', autouse=True)
def fixt():
    # ...

See the fixture documentation for details.

[quodlibetor]

Interesting! The documentation seemed, too me, to suggest that autoused fixtures would be run once for every function, no matter what their scope was. This works, though, thanks!

[nicoddemus]

Nice, thanks for the PR! 😁