[SOLVED] python pytest occasionally fails with OSError: reading from stdin while output is captured

python pytest occasionally fails with OSError: reading from stdin while output is captured

While running a particular unittest with pytest, it occasionally fails with this error (mentioned in the title) and from the stack trace it happens on the line

choice = input().lower()

when the control reaches this statement, the entire function is:

def prompt_to_activate(bear, printer):
    PROMPT_TO_ACTIVATE_STR = ('program has found {} to be useful '
                              'based of dependencies discovered from your '
                              'project files. \n Would you like to activate '
                              'it? (y/n)')
    printer.print(PROMPT_TO_ACTIVATE_STR)

    choice = input().lower()

    if choice.startswith('y'):
        return True
    elif choice.startswith('n'):
        return False
    else:
        return prompt_to_activate(bear, printer)
for i in range(0, 3):
    a = i
print(a)

I tried adding some time.sleep(x) before that statement but that wouldn't fix it. Can somebody tell me the exact reason why this is happening and how to fix it?

Solution

Since input() is an interactive function, you'll want to mock out the return value in your automated tests. Something like this:

def test_prompt(capsys, monkeypatch):
    monkeypatch.setattr('path.to.yourmodule.input', lambda prompt="", /: "no")
    val = prompt_to_activate(bear=..., printer=...)
    assert not val