How do you pass exception arguments to python unittest mock side effect?

Question

How do you pass exceptions that require arguments as mock side_effects?

I'm trying to test for assertRaises of boto.exception.EC2ResponsError, but get a "TypeError: init() takes at least 3 arguments (1 given)" in _mock_call.

@mock_ec2
@patch.object(Ec2Region, 'connect')
def test_ec2_get_raises(self, mock_connect):
    conn = boto.connect_ec2()
    mock_connect.return_value = conn
    reservation = conn.run_instances('ami-1234abcd')
    instance = reservation.instances[0]
    Ec2Instance.objects.create(region=self.region, account=self.account,
                               instance_id=instance.id)
    mock_connect.side_effect = boto.exception.EC2ResponseError
    self.assertRaises(
        boto.exception.EC2ResponseError,
        Ec2Instance.ec2_get, self.account, self.region)

The error I'm getting is this:

======================================================================
ERROR: test_ec2_get_raises (session_ec2.tests.test_instance.Ec2InstanceTest)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/bschott/.virtualenvs/session-ec2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/moto/core/models.py", line 70, in wrapper
    result = func(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/bschott/.virtualenvs/session-ec2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mock.py", line 1201, in patched
    return func(*args, **keywargs)
  File "/Users/bschott/Source/session-ec2/session_ec2/tests/test_instance.py", line 84, in test_ec2_get_raises
    Ec2Instance.ec2_get, self.account, self.region)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.5/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/unittest/case.py", line 475, in assertRaises
    callableObj(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/bschott/Source/session-ec2/session_ec2/models/instance.py", line 110, in ec2_get
    connection = region.connect(account)
  File "/Users/bschott/.virtualenvs/session-ec2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mock.py", line 955, in __call__
    return _mock_self._mock_call(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Users/bschott/.virtualenvs/session-ec2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mock.py", line 1010, in _mock_call
    raise effect
TypeError: __init__() takes at least 3 arguments (1 given)

Answer 1

As documented in Calling section you can use both instance or class in side_effect initialization. Moreover you can use a callable that raise your desired exception.

When class is used to define side_effect and the desired exception has not the trivial empty constructor you will get an exception like the one you had because mock framework doesn't know how to build that exception.

In your case you can use something like

mock_connect.side_effect = boto.exception.EC2ResponseError(400, "My reason", "my body")