Test runner imports models package with Python 3.5+

[Torsten Bronger]

Since Python 3.5, unittest's runner searches for tests also in all __init__.py modules. The release notes say:

Found packages are now checked for load_tests regardless of
whether their path matches pattern, because it is impossible for
a package name to match the default pattern.

If you organise your models in a package rather than a single models.py (the __init__.py file contains commands like from submodule import * to collect all model classes in the package), this leads to an error in a bogus test saying that the app is not ready yet. This happens because the model classes are executed, and this occurs too early (it should not occur at all).

A workaround is to say

manage.py test myapp/tests

instead of

manage.py test myapp

if your tests live in tests/ and only there.

[Claude Paroz]

#26576 was a duplicate with some other symptoms described.

[Tim Graham]

I can't reproduce with the tutorial and a models structure that looks like this:

polls/models
    __init__.py: from .models import *
    models.py (copied from `polls/models.py`)

Did I do something incorrectly or am I missing some detail to reproduce this?

[Torsten Bronger]

Isn't __init__.py loaded at all, or does it simply not throw an exception?

[Tim Graham]

I'm not sure what you're asking.

[Torsten Bronger]

​http://stackoverflow.com/a/37098808/188108 is due to the same problem. I had an __init__.py in the project's root directory when I ran my tests. So maybe this is the reason why Tim could not reproduce it.

I need this __init__.py because the project is mounted in sub-directories of other projects. However, I admit that it may be an exotic use case.

[Tim Graham]

Are you able to suggest a solution or propose a patch?

[Tim Graham]

I don't know enough to determine if this is something we should/can fix in Django. I think someone with the use case will have to provide a patch.