Config files loaded from --top-level-directory, not --start-dir (as documented)

[znewman01]

Per --help, the default config file location is "start directory":

$ nose2 --help
usage: nose2 [...]
[...]
  -s START_DIR, --start-dir START_DIR
                        Directory to start discovery ('.' default)
  -t TOP_LEVEL_DIRECTORY, --top-level-directory TOP_LEVEL_DIRECTORY, --project-directory TOP_LEVEL_DIRECTORY
                        Top level directory of project (defaults to start dir)
  --config [CONFIG], -c [CONFIG]
                        Config files to load, if they exist. ('unittest.cfg'
                        and 'nose2.cfg' in start directory default)
[...]
$

That doesn't square with my experience:

Minimal repro:

$ tree
.
├── nose2.cfg
└── tests
    ├── __init__.py
    └── test_nose.py

2 directories, 3 files

• nose2.cfg:

  [unittest]
  plugins = nose2.plugins.layers
  

• test/test_nose.py

  import unittest
  
  class DemoLayer:
      @classmethod
      def setUp(cls):
          unittest.MONKEY_PATCH = True
  
  class NoseTests(unittest.TestCase):
      layer = DemoLayer
      def test_needs_setup(self):
          self.assertTrue(unittest.MONKEY_PATCH)
  

• test/__init__.py: empty

$ nose2  # works, as expected
$ cd tests
$ nose2  # fails, as expected
$ nose2 -s ../  # FAILS (unexpected) because `layers` plugin not installed
$ nose2 -t ../  # works
$ nose2 -t ../ -s ../  # works

Full log here

Unsolicited Opinion about how to resolve

(Related: #132)

Not sure if there's a grand plan here that I'm not aware of, but I'd just change

'unittest.cfg' and 'nose2.cfg' in start directory default)

to

'unittest.cfg' and 'nose2.cfg' in top-level directory default)

in the help text.

To me (a very casual new user) it seems to make a lot of sense that
--top-level-directory would basically be like setting $PWD for the command and control the directory for most things, and --start-dir only controls where to look for tests (the name of the latter isn't very clear, to be honest).

[sirosen]

Thanks for the detailed report. I agree that the best short term fix is to clean up the documentation.

I don't want to break people's usage unnecessarily, so renaming the options should be done slowly -- introducing a new name and deprecating the old, etc.
I've never really loved these option names myself. I think they're very confusing.

What about --work-dir and --test-dir as future names? Maybe -t should just be removed, and people can cd wherever they want to go... I'll have to examine it's exact effects to confirm that that's sufficient.

[znewman01]

Stephen Rosen <notifications@github.com> writes:

Thanks for the detailed report. I agree that the best short term fix is to clean up the documentation.

Thanks for the work on nose2!

I don't want to break people's usage unnecessarily, so renaming the options should be done slowly -- introducing a new name and deprecating the old, etc. I've never really loved these option names myself. I think they're very confusing.

[Oh, I know how that goes](https://xkcd.com/1172/) :)

What about `--work-dir` and `--test-dir` as future names? Maybe `-t` should just be removed, and people can `cd` wherever they want to go... I'll have to examine it's exact effects to confirm that that's sufficient.

Those are much clearer names, especially `--test-dir`. I would have no problem with removing `-t`. If it really just sets $PWD then I don't see a need. And if it does more than that, we should explain what. My use case: I have a little Emacs code to run `nose2` in the root of my current project. No problem for me to work around. In general, I'd guess `--top-level-dir` would be useful mostly for CI or editor integrations, and no big deal in either case. If it does other important things, then you should completely ignore me :)