Python unittest does not run tests

There are three gotcha's that I know of:

  1. Your tests in your TestCases need to be named test_*
  2. Your test files need to be named: test*.py (by default, you can change it with the -p flag when running the tests). e.g. test_demo1.py
  3. Your tests folder needs to have an __init__.py file in it, or else it won't be considered a valid location to import from.

So, for #1, you need to rename the test to test_name_1. And for #2, there's two options:

A - Restructure your files like this:

demo
    tests
        __init__.py
        test_demo1.py

Then run python -m unittest and it should find the test cases.

B - Just run it like: python -m unittest discover -p *test.py


I fought with the same exact problem a while ago and I solved it by using test discovery command.

python -m unittest discover -s .

You can pass in your test file pattern as well and a whole other options https://docs.python.org/2/library/unittest.html#test-discovery