Basic usage

A simple tox.ini / default environments

Put basic information about your project and the test environments you want your project to run in into a tox.ini file that should reside next to your setup.py file:

# content of: tox.ini , put in same dir as setup.py
[tox]
envlist = py27,py36
[testenv]
# install testing framework
# ... or install anything else you might need here
deps = pytest
# run the tests
# ... or run any other command line tool you need to run here
commands = pytest

To sdist-package, install and test your project, you can now type at the command prompt:

tox

This will sdist-package your current project, create two virtualenv Environments, install the sdist-package into the environments and run the specified command in each of them. With:

tox -e py36

you can restrict the test run to the python3.6 environment.

Tox currently understands the following patterns:

py: The current Python version tox is using
pypy: Whatever available PyPy there is
jython: Whatever available Jython there is
pyN: Python of version N. for example py2 or py3 ... etc
pyNM: Python of version N.M. for example py27 or py38 ... etc
pypyN: PyPy of version N. for example pypy2 or pypy3 ... etc
pypyNM: PyPy version N.M. for example pypy27 or pypy35 ... etc

However, you can also create your own test environment names, see some of the examples in examples.

pyproject.toml tox legacy ini

The tox configuration can also be in pyproject.toml (if you want to avoid an extra file).

Currently only the old format is supported via legacy_tox_ini, a native implementation is planned though.

[build-system]
requires = [ "setuptools >= 35.0.2", "wheel >= 0.29.0"]
build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"

[tool.tox]
legacy_tox_ini = """
[tox]
envlist = py27,py36

[testenv]
deps = pytest >= 3.0.0, <4
commands = pytest
"""

Note that when you define a pyproject.toml you must define the build-system section per PEP-518.

Specifying a platform

New in version 2.0.

If you want to specify which platform(s) your test environment runs on you can set a platform regular expression like this:

[testenv]
platform = linux2|darwin

If the expression does not match against sys.platform the test environment will be skipped.

Allowing non-virtualenv commands

New in version 1.5.

Sometimes you may want to use tools not contained in your virtualenv such as make, bash or others. To avoid warnings you can use the allowlist_externals testenv configuration:

# content of tox.ini
[testenv]
allowlist_externals = make
                      /bin/bash

Depending on requirements.txt or defining constraints

New in version 1.6.1.

(experimental) If you have a requirements.txt file you can add it to your deps variable like this:

[testenv]
deps = -rrequirements.txt

This is actually a side effect that all elements of the dependency list is directly passed to pip.

If you have a constraints.txt file you could add it to your deps like the requirements.txt file above. However, then it would not be applied to

• build time dependencies when using isolated builds (https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/8439)

• run time dependencies not already listed in deps.

A better method may be to use setenv like this:

[testenv]
setenv = PIP_CONSTRAINT=constraints.txt

Make sure that all dependencies, including transient dependencies, are listed in your constraints.txt file or the version used may vary.

It should be noted that pip, setuptools and wheel are often not part of the dependency tree and will be left at whatever version virtualenv used to seed the environment.

All installation commands are executed using {toxinidir} (the directory where tox.ini resides) as the current working directory. Therefore, the underlying pip installation will assume requirements.txt or constraints.txt to exist at {toxinidir}/requirements.txt or {toxinidir}/constraints.txt.

For more details on requirements.txt files or constraints.txt files please see:

• https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/user_guide/#requirements-files

• https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/user_guide/#constraints-files

Using a different default PyPI URL

To install dependencies and packages from a different default PyPI server you can type interactively:

tox -i https://pypi.my-alternative-index.org

This causes tox to install dependencies and the sdist install step to use the specified URL as the index server.

You can cause the same effect by using a PIP_INDEX_URL environment variable. This variable can be also set in tox.ini:

[testenv]
setenv =
    PIP_INDEX_URL = https://pypi.my-alternative-index.org

Alternatively, a configuration where PIP_INDEX_URL could be overridden from environment:

[testenv]
setenv =
    PIP_INDEX_URL = {env:PIP_INDEX_URL:https://pypi.my-alternative-index.org}

Installing dependencies from multiple PyPI servers

You can instrument tox to install dependencies from multiple PyPI servers, using PIP_EXTRA_INDEX_URL environment variable:

[testenv]
setenv =
    PIP_EXTRA_INDEX_URL = https://mypypiserver.org
deps =
    # docutils will be installed directly from PyPI
    docutils
    # mypackage missing at PyPI will be installed from custom PyPI URL
    mypackage

This configuration will install docutils from the default Python PyPI server and will install the mypackage from our index server at https://mypypiserver.org URL.

Warning

Using an extra PyPI index for installing private packages may cause security issues. For example, if mypackage is registered with the default PyPI index, pip will install mypackage from the default PyPI index, not from the custom one.

Further customizing installation

New in version 1.6.

By default tox uses pip to install packages, both the package-under-test and any dependencies you specify in tox.ini. You can fully customize tox’s install-command through the testenv-specific install_command = ARGV setting. For instance, to use pip’s --find-links and --no-index options to specify an alternative source for your dependencies:

[testenv]
install_command = pip install --pre --find-links https://packages.example.com --no-index {opts} {packages}

Forcing re-creation of virtual environments

New in version 0.9.

To force tox to recreate a (particular) virtual environment:

tox --recreate -e py27

would trigger a complete reinstallation of the existing py27 environment (or create it afresh if it doesn’t exist).

Passing down environment variables

New in version 2.0.

By default tox will only pass the PATH environment variable (and on windows SYSTEMROOT and PATHEXT) from the tox invocation to the test environments. If you want to pass down additional environment variables you can use the passenv option:

[testenv]
passenv = LANG

When your test commands execute they will execute with the same LANG setting as the one with which tox was invoked.

Setting environment variables

New in version 1.0.

If you need to set an environment variable like PYTHONPATH you can use the setenv directive:

[testenv]
setenv = PYTHONPATH = {toxinidir}/subdir

When your test commands execute they will execute with a PYTHONPATH setting that will lead Python to also import from the subdir below the directory where your tox.ini file resides.

Special handling of PYTHONHASHSEED

New in version 1.6.2.

By default, tox sets PYTHONHASHSEED for test commands to a random integer generated when tox is invoked. This mimics Python’s hash randomization enabled by default starting in Python 3.3. To aid in reproducing test failures, tox displays the value of PYTHONHASHSEED in the test output.

You can tell tox to use an explicit hash seed value via the --hashseed command-line option to tox. You can also override the hash seed value per test environment in tox.ini as follows:

[testenv]
setenv = PYTHONHASHSEED = 100

If you wish to disable this feature, you can pass the command line option --hashseed=noset when tox is invoked. You can also disable it from the tox.ini by setting PYTHONHASHSEED = 0 as described above.

Integration with “setup.py test” command

Warning

setup.py test is deprecated and will be removed in a future version.

Ignoring a command exit code

In some cases, you may want to ignore a command exit code. For example:

[testenv:py27]
commands = coverage erase
       {envbindir}/python setup.py develop
       coverage run -p setup.py test
       coverage combine
       - coverage html
       {envbindir}/flake8 loads

By using the - prefix, similar to a make recipe line, you can ignore the exit code for that command.

Compressing dependency matrix

If you have a large matrix of dependencies, python versions and/or environments you can use Generative envlist and conditional settings to express that in a concise form:

[tox]
envlist = py{36,37,38}-django{22,30}-{sqlite,mysql}

[testenv]
deps =
    django22: Django>=2.2,<2.3
    django30: Django>=3.0,<3.1
    # use PyMySQL if factors "py37" and "mysql" are present in env name
    py38-mysql: PyMySQL
    # use urllib3 if any of "py36" or "py37" are present in env name
    py36,py37: urllib3
    # mocking sqlite on 3.6 and 3.7 if factor "sqlite" is present
    py{36,37}-sqlite: mock

Using generative section names

Suppose you have some binary packages, and need to run tests both in 32 and 64 bits. You also want an environment to create your virtual env for the developers.

[testenv]
basepython =
    py38-x86: python3.8-32
    py38-x64: python3.8-64
commands = pytest

[testenv:py38-{x86,x64}-venv]
usedevelop = true
envdir =
    x86: .venv-x86
    x64: .venv-x64
commands =

Prevent symbolic links in virtualenv

By default virtualenv will use symlinks to point to the system’s python files, modules, etc. If you want the files to be copied instead, possibly because your filesystem is not capable of handling symbolic links, you can instruct virtualenv to use the “–always-copy” argument meant exactly for that purpose, by setting the alwayscopy directive in your environment:

[testenv]
alwayscopy = True

Parallel mode

tox allows running environments in parallel:

• Invoke by using the --parallel or -p flag. After the packaging phase completes tox will run in parallel processes tox environments (spins a new instance of the tox interpreter, but passes through all host flags and environment variables).

• -p takes an argument specifying the degree of parallelization, defaulting to auto:

  • all to run all invoked environments in parallel,

  • auto to limit it to CPU count,

  • or pass an integer to set that limit.

• Parallel mode displays a progress spinner while running tox environments in parallel, and reports outcome of these as soon as completed with a human readable duration timing attached. This spinner can be disabled by setting the environment variable TOX_PARALLEL_NO_SPINNER to the value 1.

• Parallel mode by default shows output only of failed environments and ones marked as parallel_show_output =True.

• There’s now a concept of dependency between environments (specified via depends), tox will re-order the environment list to be run to satisfy these dependencies (in sequential run too). Furthermore, in parallel mode, will only schedule a tox environment to run once all of its dependencies finished (independent of their outcome).

  Warning

  depends does not pull in dependencies into the run target, for example if you select py27,py36,coverage via the -e tox will only run those three (even if coverage may specify as depends other targets too - such as py27, py35, py36, py37).

• --parallel-live/-o allows showing the live output of the standard output and error, also turns off reporting described above.

• Note: parallel evaluation disables standard input. Use non parallel invocation if you need standard input.

Example final output:

$ tox -e py27,py36,coverage -p all
✔ OK py36 in 9.533 seconds
✔ OK py27 in 9.96 seconds
✔ OK coverage in 2.0 seconds
___________________________ summary ______________________________________________________
  py27: commands succeeded
  py36: commands succeeded
  coverage: commands succeeded
  congratulations :)

Example progress bar, showing a rotating spinner, the number of environments running and their list (limited up to 120 characters):

⠹ [2] py27 | py36

tox auto-provisioning

In case the host tox does not satisfy either the minversion or the requires, tox will now automatically create a virtual environment under provision_tox_env that satisfies those constraints and delegate all calls to this meta environment. This should allow automatically satisfying constraints on your tox environment, given you have at least version 3.8.0 of tox.

For example given:

[tox]
minversion = 3.10.0
requires = tox_venv >= 1.0.0

if the user runs it with tox 3.8.0 or later installed tox will automatically ensured that both the minimum version and requires constraints are satisfied, by creating a virtual environment under .tox folder, and then installing into it tox >= 3.10.0 and tox_venv >= 1.0.0. Afterwards all tox invocations are forwarded to the tox installed inside .tox\.tox folder (referred to as meta-tox or auto-provisioned tox).

This allows tox to automatically setup itself with all its plugins for the current project. If the host tox satisfies the constraints expressed with the requires and minversion no such provisioning is done (to avoid setup cost when it’s not explicitly needed).