[py-dev] failing import in toplevel module

[Carl Friedrich Bolz]

Hi py-dev!

today I had the following problem with py.test: I could not find a way 
to skip tests in a package if the import of the package itself fails 
(because the __init__.py raises something). Example:

assuming I have a package directory "example" with two files in it:

__init__.py:
------------

something that can raise ImportError


test_it.py:
-----------

import py

try:
     import example
except ImportError:
     py.test.skip("missing dependencies, whatever")

... (some tests)


In this situation the tests will always fail because py.test 
automatically tries to import the top-level package. This cannot be 
circumvented even when using a conftest file since the import of the 
top-level package happens very early.

Is there something I was missing? Couldn't for example py.test only 
insert the path to the top-level dir into sys.path, so that the "import 
example" find the correct package?

Cheers,

Carl Friedrich