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Comparison of pytest plugins for accessing data files

It is often said there are more pytest plugins that aim to provide convenient access to packaged data files than grains of sand on Earth. Here I compare them all.

Did I miss one or do you have suggestions for other criteria? Feel free to open an issue!

Comparison

{%- for plugin in plugins %} {%- endfor %}
Name / URL Supports copying to temp dir Supports access without copying Paths provided as Fixture names Folder names
{{ plugin.name }} {% if plugin.supports_copying_to_temp %}✔{% else %}❌{% endif %} {% if plugin.supports_access_without_copying %}✔{% else %}❌{% endif %} {{ plugin.provided_as }}
    {%- for fixture_name in plugin.fixture_names %}
  • {{ fixture_name }}
    • {%- endfor %}
    {%- for folder_name in plugin.folder_names %}
  • {{ folder_name }}
    • {%- endfor %}

Excluded

These plugins have names that might suggest they'd do something similar, but have slightly different aims than just providing convenient access to packaged data files:

{% for plugin in excluded_plugins -%}

  • [{{ plugin.name }}]({{ plugin.pypi_url }}): {{ plugin.reason|wordwrap(77)|indent(2) }} {% endfor %}

Do I even need a plugin for this?

No.

In Python 3.12+, you can use the functions provided by importlib.resources to access both files and directories from your resource folders.

In Python 3.7-3.11, you could use them to at least access files, while for entire directories you had to use the (discouraged) pkg_resources ResourceManager API API (part of setuptools).

By now, the only purpose of these plugins, at least as far as this comparison is concerned, is to get rid of the boilerplate for you.

Other things to note

No matter which method or plugin you choose, all of them will have to extract data files if your package is stored in an archived form (e.g. egg or wheel). To avoid this, specify zip_safe=False in your package configuration.
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