How do I test the setup.py for my package?

Question

I have a pretty big Python package I've written, about 3500 statements, with a robust unit and acceptance test suite. I feel quite confident about the quality of the code itself, but I'm uneasy about the install process going smoothly for users of the package as I don't know how to reliably test the install in an appropriately isolated environment, short of something like keeping a spare machine around and re-imaging it with a fresh OS install for each test run.

I suspect using virtualenv in the right way might provide a proper test fixture for testing installation, but after extended web searches have uncovered no helpful guidance.

How can I effectively test my setup.py and other installation bits on my development machine?

Answer 1

If you like tools (which I do) check out fabric and the set of Fabric tasks I've written across all my projects:

e.g: circuits' fabfile

This should work for just about any Python project and utilizes:

• Sphinx
• py.test/tox
• virtualenv

Some basic workflows:

fab build    # build the package in non-development mode
fab develop  # build the package in development mode
fab docs     # build/regenerate the documentation
fab test     # run tie unit test suite
fab release  # run through a tested release cycle

Type: fab -l for a list of commands and fab help:<name> for help on any command.

Update: Recently we added fab docker commands to work with Docker

fab docker:build    # Build a Docker image
fab docker:publish  # Publish Docker image to the Docker Hub
fab docker:run      # Run a new Docker container

Answer 2

If you really want isolation instead just doing python setup.py install in virtualenv. Then use virtualbox and install some free linux os in it. Take a snapshot of the machine after the install so you can revert easily with one click to the starting point at any time and try python setup.py install there.