>>> from optparse import OptionParser >>> import os >>> from cStringIO import StringIO >>> import nose.config All commandline options to fall back to values configured in configuration files. The configuration lives in a single section ("nosetests") in each configuration file. >>> support = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "support", ... "config_defaults") >>> def error(msg): ... print "error: %s" % msg >>> def get_parser(): ... parser = OptionParser() ... parser.add_option( ... "-v", "--verbose", ... action="count", dest="verbosity", ... default=1) ... parser.add_option( ... "--verbosity", action="store", dest="verbosity", ... type="int") ... return nose.config.ConfiguredDefaultsOptionParser(parser, ... "nosetests", ... error) >>> def parse(args, config_files): ... argv = ["nosetests"] + list(args) ... return get_parser().parseArgsAndConfigFiles(argv, config_files) Options on the command line combine with the defaults from the config files and the options' own defaults (here, -v adds 1 to verbosity of 3 from a.cfg). Config file defaults take precedence over options' defaults. >>> options, args = parse([], []) >>> options.verbosity 1 >>> options, args = parse([], os.path.join(support, "a.cfg")) >>> options.verbosity 3 >>> options, args = parse(["-v"], os.path.join(support, "a.cfg")) >>> options.verbosity 4 Command line arguments take precedence >>> options, args = parse(["--verbosity=7"], os.path.join(support, "a.cfg")) >>> options.verbosity 7 Where options appear in several config files, the last config file wins >>> files = [os.path.join(support, "b.cfg"), os.path.join(support, "a.cfg")] >>> options, args = parse([], files) >>> options.verbosity 3 Invalid values should cause an error specifically about configuration files (not about a commandline option) >>> options, arguments = parse([], StringIO("""\ ... [nosetests] ... verbosity = spam ... """)) error: Error reading config file '': option 'verbosity': invalid integer value: 'spam' Unrecognised option in nosetests config section >>> options, args = parse([], StringIO("[nosetests]\nspam=eggs\n")) error: Error reading config file '': no such option 'spam' If there were multiple config files, the error message tells us which file contains the bad option name or value >>> options, args = parse([], [os.path.join(support, "a.cfg"), ... os.path.join(support, "invalid_value.cfg"), ... os.path.join(support, "b.cfg")]) ... # doctest: +ELLIPSIS error: Error reading config file '...invalid_value.cfg': option 'verbosity': invalid integer value: 'spam' Invalid config files (file-like object) >>> options, args = parse([], StringIO("spam")) error: Error reading config file '': File contains no section headers. file: , line: 1 'spam' (filename) >>> options, args = parse([], os.path.join(support, "invalid.cfg")) ... # doctest: +ELLIPSIS error: Error reading config file '...invalid.cfg': File contains no section headers. file: ...invalid.cfg, line: 1 'spam\n' (filenames, length == 1) >>> options, args = parse([], [os.path.join(support, "invalid.cfg")]) ... # doctest: +ELLIPSIS error: Error reading config file '...invalid.cfg': File contains no section headers. file: ...invalid.cfg, line: 1 'spam\n' (filenames, length > 1) If there were multiple config files, the error message tells us which file is bad >>> options, args = parse([], [os.path.join(support, "a.cfg"), ... os.path.join(support, "invalid.cfg"), ... os.path.join(support, "b.cfg")]) ... # doctest: +ELLIPSIS error: Error reading config file '...invalid.cfg': File contains no section headers. file: ...invalid.cfg, line: 1 'spam\n' Missing config files don't deserve an error or warning (filename) >>> options, args = parse([], os.path.join(support, "nonexistent.cfg")) >>> print options.__dict__ {'verbosity': 1} (filenames) >>> options, args = parse([], [os.path.join(support, "nonexistent.cfg")]) >>> print options.__dict__ {'verbosity': 1} The same goes for missing config file section ("nosetests") >>> options, args = parse([], StringIO("[spam]\nfoo=bar\n")) >>> print options.__dict__ {'verbosity': 1}