Pytest doesn't work with psutil + xlwings

Question

I found another SO addressing a similar problem but no one gave an answer.

My problem is the following (and a bit simpler to reproduce), create a file called test_file.py with:


import psutil
import xlwings

def test() -> None:
    my_function()

def my_function() -> None:
    # Create a new workbook
    wb = xlwings.Book()
    # Save it
    wb.save('test.xlsx')
    # Close it
    wb.close()

    # Kill zombie processes
    for proc in psutil.process_iter():
        if proc.name() == "EXCEL.EXE":
            proc.kill()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    my_function()

When doing python test_file.py, everything goes smoothly. When doing pytest to do my unit tests, I have this error:

test_file.py Windows fatal exception: code 0x800706ba

The traceback is the following:

  File "C:\Users\jason\Desktop\so\test_file.py", line 6 in test
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\python.py", line 195 in pytest_pyfunc_call
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_callers.py", line 39 in _multicall
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_manager.py", line 80 in _hookexec
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_hooks.py", line 265 in __call__
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\python.py", line 1789 in runtest
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\runner.py", line 167 in pytest_runtest_call
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_callers.py", line 39 in _multicall
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_manager.py", line 80 in _hookexec
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_hooks.py", line 265 in __call__
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\runner.py", line 260 in <lambda>
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\runner.py", line 339 in from_call
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\runner.py", line 259 in call_runtest_hook
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\runner.py", line 220 in call_and_report
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\runner.py", line 131 in runtestprotocol
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\runner.py", line 112 in pytest_runtest_protocol
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_callers.py", line 39 in _multicall
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_manager.py", line 80 in _hookexec
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_hooks.py", line 265 in __call__
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\main.py", line 349 in pytest_runtestloop
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_callers.py", line 39 in _multicall
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_manager.py", line 80 in _hookexec
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_hooks.py", line 265 in __call__
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\main.py", line 324 in _main
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\main.py", line 270 in wrap_session
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\main.py", line 317 in pytest_cmdline_main
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_callers.py", line 39 in _multicall
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_manager.py", line 80 in _hookexec
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\pluggy\_hooks.py", line 265 in __call__
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\config\__init__.py", line 167 in main
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Lib\site-packages\_pytest\config\__init__.py", line 190 in console_main
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Scripts\pytest.exe\__main__.py", line 7 in <module>
  File "<frozen runpy>", line 88 in _run_code
  File "<frozen runpy>", line 198 in _run_module_as_main

It must be a problem between pytest, xlwings, psutil because if I'm not using the three simultaneously I cannot reproduce the bug.

I'm using Python 3.11.1, xlwings==0.28.6, pytest==7.2.2 and psutil==5.9.4.

Using a context manager as suggested by @moken doesn't work either:

import xlwings

def test() -> None:
    my_function()

def my_function() -> None:
    with xlwings.App(visible=True):
        # Create a new workbook
        wb = xlwings.Book()
        # Save it
        wb.save('test.xlsx')
        # Close it
        wb.close()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    my_function()

raises the exact same error (when using pytest, when not, everything works fine obviously).

It's the zombie process check that causes the error right? Why do that? like the referenced SO post suggests. Use a context manager to avoid zombie Excel processes. — moken, May 03 '23 at 00:59
The context manager raises the same exception for me. I've edited the main post. — IHopeItWontBeAStupidQuestion, May 03 '23 at 12:25
Have you tried using `unittest.mock` to mock Excel interactions during testing to avoid the issue with (pytest, xlwings, and psutil)? As long as you know xlwings works fine with excel; this approach may work better. — Grimlock, May 06 '23 at 22:44
The `.xlsx` which you are using in the pytest, make sure it's been closed. And also you can try running the pytest in a separate `subprocess`. — Pravash Panigrahi, May 07 '23 at 12:00
@mrxra Thanks for the github issue reference! the github link you sent says: "While I agree that that for internal unit testing, you can potentially disable faulthandling, I would advise against making use of -p no:faulthandler the official recommendation in your documentation, since users of the package (like me) would be unintentionally silencing all faulthandling -- not just the faulthandling for tests involving xlwings API calls.". Is it really safe to disable segmentation errors handling? — IHopeItWontBeAStupidQuestion, May 15 '23 at 07:18
@mrxra About the stackoverflow you linked, I literally linked it and am actively talking about it in the post. I have no idea why you commented that. — IHopeItWontBeAStupidQuestion, May 15 '23 at 07:24

Pytest doesn't work with psutil + xlwings

0 Answers0