What is the correct way to use unittest in python with the test modules in a directory inside the main package?

Question

I am currently developing a python package with 3.7.1 and am trying to use unittest with a /test directory containing test modules, which will then contain multiple test cases. I am trying to use the following directory structure:

|_ app/
  |_ main.py
  |_ my_module/
             |_ MyPackage.py
  |_ test/
             |_ test_MyPackage.py

Inside test_MyPackage.py I am trying to import the required class from MyPackage using from my_module.MyPackage import MyClass as if the module was placed inside the app/ directory but this does not work as the import fails. I know that imports in python don't work like this, and tried it after reading the same question at Running unittest with typical test directory structure which appears to be outdated. I have also read that using python -m unittest should work provided that the test cases are in a /test directory and named test_*.py, but this did not work either, and outputs "Ran 0 tests in 0.000s".

So far the only way I'm able to use my unit tests is to move them to the app/ directory each time I want to run them. Would anybody be able to advise me on the how to use unittests in a separate directory like this without moving them to the app/ directory or importing them with a separate test module permanently inside the app/ directory?

show the error you're getting when running test from the test directory. — Vishal Singh, Jun 26 '20 at 02:29
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'my_module', is there something I'm missing to add the app/ directory to the path when running the tests? — m4ttm, Jun 26 '20 at 02:32
post the error that you're getting in your original post so that others can also read it. — Vishal Singh, Jun 26 '20 at 02:36
also include in your post the import that you're doing in your `test_MyPackage.py` file and how you're running your test. — Vishal Singh, Jun 26 '20 at 02:37

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 26 '20 at 02:39

This is working now, I added an __init__.py file in the test/ directory and the tests all ran successfully when using python -m unittest. I thought this file wasn't required after Python 3.3 but it appears that unittest doesn't work correctly without it

What is the correct way to use unittest in python with the test modules in a directory inside the main package?

1 Answers1