Adds a verbosity keyword argument to unittest.main plus a minor fix allowing you to specify test modules / classes

from the command line.

Closes issue 5995.

Michael Foord

Doc/library/unittest.rst

@@ -91,6 +91,31 @@ need to derive from a specific class.
    `python-mock <http://python-mock.sourceforge.net/>`_ and `minimock <http://blog.ianbicking.org/minimock.html>`_
       Tools for creating mock test objects (objects simulating external resources).
 
+Command Line Interface
+----------------------
+
+The unittest module can be used from the command line to run tests from
+modules, classes or even individual test methods::
+
+   python -m unittest test_module1 test_module2
+   python -m unittest test_module.TestClass
+   python -m unittest test_module.TestClass.test_method
+
+You can pass in a list with any combination of module names, and fully qualified class or
+method names.
+
+You can run tests with more detail (higher verbosity) by passing in the -v flag::
+
+   python-m unittest -v test_module
+
+For a list of all the command line options::
+
+   python -m unittest -h
+
+..  versionchanged:: 27
+   In earlier versions it was only possible to run individual test methods and not modules
+   or classes.
+
 .. _unittest-minimal-example:
 
 Basic example
@@ -178,7 +203,6 @@ The above examples show the most commonly used :mod:`unittest` features which
 are sufficient to meet many everyday testing needs.  The remainder of the
 documentation explores the full feature set from first principles.
 
-
 .. _organizing-tests:
 
 Organizing test code
@@ -1408,7 +1432,7 @@ Loading and running tests
       subclasses to provide a custom ``TestResult``.
 
 
-.. function:: main([module[, defaultTest[, argv[, testRunner[, testLoader[, exit]]]]]])
+.. function:: main([module[, defaultTest[, argv[, testRunner[, testLoader[, exit, [verbosity]]]]]]])
 
    A command-line program that runs a set of tests; this is primarily for making
    test modules conveniently executable.  The simplest use for this function is to
@@ -1417,6 +1441,12 @@ Loading and running tests
       if __name__ == '__main__':
           unittest.main()
 
+   You can run tests with more detailed information by passing in the verbosity
+   argument::
+
+      if __name__ == '__main__':
+          unittest.main(verbosity=2)
+
    The *testRunner* argument can either be a test runner class or an already
    created instance of it. By default ``main`` calls :func:`sys.exit` with
    an exit code indicating success or failure of the tests run.
@@ -1432,4 +1462,4 @@ Loading and running tests
    This stores the result of the tests run as the ``result`` attribute.
 
    .. versionchanged:: 2.7
-      The ``exit`` parameter was added.
+      The ``exit`` and ``verbosity`` parameters were added.

Lib/test/test_unittest.py

@@ -3280,19 +3280,22 @@ class Test_TestProgram(TestCase):
 
         runner = FakeRunner()
 
-        try:
-            oldParseArgs = TestProgram.parseArgs
-            TestProgram.parseArgs = lambda *args: None
-            TestProgram.test = test
-
-            program = TestProgram(testRunner=runner, exit=False)
-
-            self.assertEqual(program.result, result)
-            self.assertEqual(runner.test, test)
-
-        finally:
+        oldParseArgs = TestProgram.parseArgs
+        def restoreParseArgs():
             TestProgram.parseArgs = oldParseArgs
+        TestProgram.parseArgs = lambda *args: None
+        self.addCleanup(restoreParseArgs)
+
+        def removeTest():
             del TestProgram.test
+        TestProgram.test = test
+        self.addCleanup(removeTest)
+
+        program = TestProgram(testRunner=runner, exit=False, verbosity=2)
+
+        self.assertEqual(program.result, result)
+        self.assertEqual(runner.test, test)
+        self.assertEqual(program.verbosity, 2)
 
 
     class FooBar(unittest.TestCase):

Lib/unittest.py

@@ -1524,7 +1524,8 @@ Examples:
 """
     def __init__(self, module='__main__', defaultTest=None,
                  argv=None, testRunner=TextTestRunner,
-                 testLoader=defaultTestLoader, exit=True):
+                 testLoader=defaultTestLoader, exit=True,
+                 verbosity=1):
         if isinstance(module, basestring):
             self.module = __import__(module)
             for part in module.split('.')[1:]:
@@ -1535,7 +1536,7 @@ Examples:
             argv = sys.argv
 
         self.exit = exit
-        self.verbosity = 1
+        self.verbosity = verbosity
         self.defaultTest = defaultTest
         self.testRunner = testRunner
         self.testLoader = testLoader
@@ -1566,6 +1567,7 @@ Examples:
                 return
             if len(args) > 0:
                 self.testNames = args
+                self.module = None
             else:
                 self.testNames = (self.defaultTest,)
             self.createTests()
@@ -1598,4 +1600,5 @@ main = TestProgram
 ##############################################################################
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
+    sys.modules['unittest'] = sys.modules['__main__']
     main(module=None)

Misc/NEWS

@@ -428,6 +428,12 @@ Library
 
 - Issue #3379: unittest.main now takes an optional exit argument. If False main
   doesn't call sys.exit allowing it to be used from the interactive interpreter.
+  
+- Issue #5995: unittest.main now takes an optional verbosity argument allowing 
+  test modules to be run with a higher than default verbosity.
+  
+- Issue 5995: A fix to allow you to run "python -m unittest test_module" or 
+  "python -m unittest test_module.TestClass" from the command line.
 
 - Issue #5728: unittest.TestResult has new startTestRun and stopTestRun methods;
   called immediately before and after a test run.