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I've asked this question before (Force nose2 to use Python 2.7 instead of Python 3.5) but didn't get an answer, and thought I might give it another try. I'm trying to run tests using the command

nose2

but I'm getting an error that ends with

SyntaxError: Missing parentheses in call to 'print'

It seems like nose2 assumes that the code is in Python 3, whereas in this case it is in Python 2. Is there any way to make nose2 work on Python 2 code? (For example by changing its configuration)?

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Kurt Peek
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    According to [this](http://nose2.readthedocs.io/en/latest/differences.html) document nose2 should support Python 2.6, 2.7, 3.2 and above. Are you sure your using python2 interpreter? There is lot of [differences](http://sebastianraschka.com/Articles/2014_python_2_3_key_diff.html) between python2 and python3. Syntax error you mentioned suggests that you try run python2 code with python3 interpreter. – running.t Jan 11 '17 at 11:10
  • Following http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9079036/detect-python-version-at-runtime, I checked my Python version using a script containing `print(sys.version_info[0])`, and it returns `2`. – Kurt Peek Jan 11 '17 at 13:29
  • Incidentally, another testing program which worked 'as is' is [pytest](http://doc.pytest.org/en/latest/). Its test discovery methods are slightly different (for example, I had to rename the test scripts to start with `test_` or end with `_test`), but I find the terminal output more user-friendly than `nose2`. – Kurt Peek Jan 11 '17 at 13:31

1 Answers1

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nose2 takes whatever python is configured in the shebang line.

To test a python2 project use (executable and path might differ on your machine):

python2.7 /usr/local/bin/nose2

verified with this example:

test.py:

def test_the_program():
    print "foo"

with python3:

$ python3 /usr/local/bin/nose2
======================================================================
ERROR: test (nose2.loader.ModuleImportFailure)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ImportError: Failed to import test module: test
    (...)
    print "hans"
               ^
SyntaxError: Missing parentheses in call to 'print'


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 1 test in 0.000s

FAILED (errors=1)

with python2.7:

$ python2.7 /usr/local/bin/nose2
foo
.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 1 test in 0.000s

OK
hansaplast
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