[TIP] Supporting multiple fixtures for a test suite

[Gary Bernhardt]

I have a fairly complex client-server system with a suite of
functional tests.  I want to be able to run the tests in two ways: by
spawning the server and running normally; or with paste.fixture, which
hooks the client directly to the WSGI app.  Supporting both test modes
allows me to make a tradeoff whenever I run the tests: do I want them
to be more complete (i.e., the full test mode with the server), or do
I want them to be fast (i.e., with the short-circuited WSGI mode,
which takes about half as long to run).  To put it simply, what I want
is a single test suite that can choose between multiple fixtures.

I've considered a couple solutions.  First, I could add a package that
imports all of the functional tests, but adds its own setup and
teardown methods.  I don't like this because the packages could
accidentally go out of sync (i.e., I forget to mirror a module or a
class from one to the other).  Second, I could add an environment
variable that chooses between the fixtures.  I don't like this either
because it's not obvious - you wouldn't know there are multiple
fixtures unless you dug down into the fixtures themselves.

So finally, the question I have is: how do you guys deal with
overloaded tests like this?  Is there some standard way to do it that
I've failed to google? :)

-- 
Gary
http://blog.extracheese.org