ipython_nose

This little IPython extension gives you the ability to discover and run tests using Nose in an IPython Notebook.

Installation

• Make sure your IPython Notebook server can import ipython_nose.py (e.g. copy it to a directory in your PYTHONPATH, or modify PYTHONPATH before starting IPython Notebook). It's also probably sufficient to have ipython_nose.py in the directory from which you run the notebook, e.g.:

  $ ls
  ipython_nose.py
  $ ipython notebook
  

• You can also install it in a virtualenv in developent mode:

  $ cd ipython-nose
  $ pip install -e .
  

Usage

• Add a cell containing:

  %load_ext ipython_nose
  

  somewhere in your notebook.

• Write tests that conform to Nose conventions, e.g.:

  def test_arithmetic():
      assert 1+1 == 2
  

• Add a cell consisting of:

  %nose
  

  to your notebook and run that cell. That will discover your test_* functions, run them, and report how many passed and how many failed, with stack traces for each failure.

• Pass standard nose arguments to the magic:

  %nose -v -x
  

  -v is handled specially, but other arguments are passed to nosetests as if they were passed at the command-line.

Caveats

• Renaming tests leaves behind the old name: you might only see N test methods in your notebook, but Nose will discover and run N+1 tests. Not sure how to fix this one.

• Links between the stack traces and the code are only cell deep. For example, in a stack trace that looks like:

  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nose/case.py", line 197, in runTest
      self.test(*self.arg)
    File "<ipython-input-10-a3ae96abafeb>", line 2, in test_myfunc
      assert myfunc() == 42
  AssertionError
  

  the frame name ipython-input-10-a3ae96abafeb is a link to cell 10, but not specifically to line 2.

TODO

• Have a cell magic to only run test-like things in the current cell, e.g.:

  %%nose
  
  def test_just_this():
      assert True
  

Authors

• Taavi Burns <taavi at taaviburns dot ca>
• Greg Ward <greg at gerg dot ca>

Thanks to Fernando Perez and Greg Wilson for tips, ideas, etc.

Thanks to Catherine Devlin for publishing ipython_doctester so we could peek at its guts.

Get the code

git clone https://github.com/taavi/ipython_nose.git

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2012, Taavi Burns, Greg Ward.

All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

Neither the name of the developers nor the names of contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.