[pytest-dev] py.test foreground service listener

[Alfredo Deza]

I was looking into passing a path (which can contain some options as well)
to a foreground py.test process that is "listening" for commands to run.

This would help integrate text editors easily send a non-blocking test to
the terminal so that further interaction can take place there. Complex
tests that take very long  (or need debugging via pdb) can be very
problematic to run from an editor.

Most editors don't have a terminal emulator, so it is either cumbersome or
impossible to jump from the editor to the shell. Having a foreground
py.test process would help here.

The context would look similar to this:

    $ py.test --foreground --listen=/some/socket
    ============= foreground process starts =============
    platform darwin -- Python 2.7.2 -- pytest-2.3.4
    listening on: /some/socket

And then from an editor some utility would send the desired path with
options:

    utility '-s /path/to/test_file.py' --socket=/some/socket

The listener would then receive the above command and execute:

    received test task
    collected 1 item

    /path/to/test_file.py .
    ========== 1 passed in 0.01 seconds ==========

And then it would again keep listening for more "tasks". The scenario above
is very simple, but as things get complicated, with more options (like
dropping to pdb) it gets more useful.

On IRC Ronny mentioned that this would be very tricky to accomplish
(probably issues with the import cache). So this would mean that currently,
a plugin would just not be suitable?

Are there any options that would be left for such a thing? If not coming
directly out of py.test maybe a wrapper would probably work here but I am
not aware of any tool that may help.

Any ideas/feedback would be great.


-Alfredo
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