How to use py.test fixtures without importing them

Question

Say I have a file fixtures.py that defines a simple py.test fixture called foobar.

Normally I would have to import that fixture to use it (including all of the sub-fixtures), like this:

from fixtures import foobar

def test_bazinga(foobar):

Note that I also don't want to use a star import.

How do I import this fixture so that I can just write:

import fixtures

def test_bazinga(foobar):

Is this even possible? It seems like it, because py.test itself defines exactly such fixtures (e.g. monkeypatch).

Answer 1

Fixtures and their visibility are a bit odd in pytest. They don't require importing, but if you defined them in a test_*.py file, they'll only be available in that file.

You can however put them in a (project- or subfolder-wide) conftest.py to use them in multiple files.

pytest-internal fixtures are simply defined in a core plugin, and thus available everywhere. In fact, a conftest.py is basically nothing else than a per-directory plugin.

You can also run py.test --fixtures to see where fixtures are coming from.