Quickstart

With a setuptools installation (otherwise see here) you can type:

easy_install -U py

On Linux systems you may need to execute this as the superuser and on Windows you might need to write down the full path to easy_install.

Now create a file test_sample.py with the following content:

# content of test_sample.py
def func(x):
    return x + 1
def test_answer():
    assert f(3) == 5

You can now run the test file like this:

py.test test_sample.py

and will see output like this:

=========================== test session starts ============================
python: platform linux2 -- Python 2.6.2
test object 1: test_sample.py

test_sample.py F

================================= FAILURES =================================
_______________________________ test_answer ________________________________

    def test_answer():
>       assert func(3) == 5
E       assert 4 == 5
E        +  where 4 = func(3)

test_sample.py:6: AssertionError
========================= 1 failed in 0.08 seconds =========================

This output contains Python interpreter information, a list of test objects, a progress report and important details of the failure.

Where to go from here

tutorials: a collection of starting points with code examples

features: overview and description of test features

contact: many ways for feedback and questions