Troubleshooting =============== This is a collection of problems with ``pyfakefs`` and possible solutions. It will be expanded continuously based on issues and problems found by users. Modules not working with pyfakefs --------------------------------- Modules may not work with ``pyfakefs`` for several reasons. ``pyfakefs`` works by patching some file system related modules and functions, specifically: - most file system related functions in the ``os`` and ``os.path`` modules - the ``pathlib`` module - the built-in ``open`` function and ``io.open`` - ``shutil.disk_usage`` Other file system related modules work with ``pyfakefs``, because they use exclusively these patched functions, specifically ``shutil`` (except for ``disk_usage``), ``tempfile``, ``glob`` and ``zipfile``. A module may not work with ``pyfakefs`` because of one of the following reasons: - It uses a file system related function of the mentioned modules that is not or not correctly patched. Mostly these are functions that are seldom used, but may be used in Python libraries (this has happened for example with a changed implementation of ``shutil`` in Python 3.7). Generally, these shall be handled in issues and we are happy to fix them. - It uses file system related functions in a way that will not be patched automatically. This is the case for functions that are executed while reading a module. This case and a possibility to make them work is documented above under ``modules_to_reload``. - It uses OS specific file system functions not contained in the Python libraries. These will not work out of the box, and we generally will not support them in ``pyfakefs``. If these functions are used in isolated functions or classes, they may be patched by using the ``modules_to_patch`` parameter (see the example for file locks in Django above), or by using ``unittest.patch`` if you don't need to simulate the functions. We added some of these patches to ``pyfakefs``, so that they are applied automatically (currently done for some ``pandas`` and ``Django`` functionality). - It uses C libraries to access the file system. There is no way no make such a module work with ``pyfakefs``--if you want to use it, you have to patch the whole module. In some cases, a library implemented in Python with a similar interface already exists. An example is ``lxml``, which can be substituted with ``ElementTree`` in most cases for testing. A list of Python modules that are known to not work correctly with ``pyfakefs`` will be collected here: `multiprocessing`_ (built-in) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This module has several issues (related to points 1 and 3 above). Currently there are no plans to fix this, but this may change in case of sufficient demand. `subprocess`_ (built-in) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This has very similar problems to ``multiprocessing`` and cannot be used with ``pyfakefs`` to start a process. ``subprocess`` can either be mocked, if the process is not needed for the test, or patching can be paused to start a process if needed, and resumed afterwards (see `this issue `__). Modules that rely on ``subprocess`` or ``multiprocessing`` ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This includes a number of modules that need to start other executables to function correctly. Examples that have shown this problem include `GitPython`_ and `plumbum`_. Calling ``find_library`` also uses ``subprocess`` and does not work in the fake filesystem. `sqlite3`_ (built-in) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a database adapter written in C, which uses the database C API to access files. This (and similar database adapters) will not work with ``pyfakefs``, as it will always access the real filesystem. The `Pillow`_ Imaging Library ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This library partly works with ``pyfakefs``, but it is known to not work at least if writing JPEG files (see `this issue `__) The `pandas`_ data analysis toolkit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This uses its own internal file system access written in C, thus much of ``pandas`` will not work with ``pyfakefs`` out of the box. Having said that, ``pyfakefs`` patches ``pandas`` to use standard file-system access instead, so that many of the ``read_xxx`` functions, including ``read_csv`` and ``read_excel``, as well as some writer functions, do work with the fake file system. If you use only these functions, ``pyfakefs`` should work fine with ``pandas``. `xlrd`_ ~~~~~~~ This library is used by ``pandas`` to read Excel files in the `.xls` format, and can also be used stand-alone. Similar to ``pandas``, it is by default patched by ``pyfakefs`` to use normal file system functions that can be patched. `openpyxl`_ ~~~~~~~~~~~ This is another library that reads and writes Excel files, and is also used by ``pandas`` if installed. ``openpyxl`` uses ``lxml`` for some file-system access if it is installed--in this case ``pyfakefs`` will not be able to patch it correctly (``lxml`` uses C functions for file system access). It will `not` use ``lxml`` however, if the environment variable ``OPENPYXL_LXML`` is set to "False" (or anything other than "True"), so if you set this variable `before` running the tests, it can work fine with ``pyfakefs``. If you encounter a module not working with ``pyfakefs``, and you are not sure if the module can be handled or how to do it, please write a new issue. We will check if it can be made to work, and at least add it to this list. Pyfakefs behaves differently than the real filesystem ----------------------------------------------------- There are at least the following kinds of deviations from the actual behavior: - unwanted deviations that we didn't notice--if you find any of these, please write an issue and we will try to fix it - behavior that depends on different OS versions and editions--as mentioned in :ref:`limitations`, ``pyfakefs`` uses the systems used for CI tests in GitHub Actions as reference system and will not replicate all system-specific behavior - behavior that depends on low-level OS functionality that ``pyfakefs`` is not able to emulate; examples are the ``fcntl.ioctl`` and ``fcntl.fcntl`` functions that are patched to do nothing The test code tries to access files in the real filesystem ---------------------------------------------------------- The loading of the actual Python code from the real filesystem does not use the filesystem functions that ``pyfakefs`` patches, but in some cases it may access other files in the packages. An example is the ``pytz`` module, which is loading timezone information from configuration files. In these cases, you have to map the respective files or directories from the real into the fake filesystem as described in :ref:`real_fs_access`. For the timezone example, this could look like the following:: .. code:: python from pathlib import Path import pytz from pyfakefs.fake_filesystem_unittest import TestCase class ExampleTestCase(TestCase): def setUp(self): self.setUpPyfakefs() info_dir = Path(pytz.__file__).parent / "zoneinfo" self.fs.add_real_directory(info_dir) .. note:: In newer django versions, `tzdata` is used instead of `pytz`, but the usage will be the same. If you are using Django, various dependencies may expect both the project directory and the ``site-packages`` installation to exist in the fake filesystem. Here's an example of how to add these using pytest: .. code:: python import os import django import pytest @pytest.fixture def fake_fs(fs): PROJECT_BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))) fs.add_real_paths( [ PROJECT_BASE_DIR, os.path.dirname(django.__file__), ] ) return fs OS temporary directories ------------------------ Tests relying on a completely empty file system on test start will fail. As ``pyfakefs`` does not fake the ``tempfile`` module (as described above), a temporary directory is required to ensure that ``tempfile`` works correctly, e.g., that ``tempfile.gettempdir()`` will return a valid value. This means that any newly created fake file system will always have either a directory named ``/tmp`` when running on POSIX systems, or ``C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Temp`` on Windows: .. code:: python import os def test_something(fs): # the temp directory is always present at test start assert len(os.listdir("/")) == 1 Under macOS and linux, if the actual temp path is not `/tmp` (which will be the case if an environment variable `TEMPDIR`, `TEMP` or `TMP` points to another path), a symlink to the actual temp directory is additionally created as `/tmp` in the fake filesystem. Note that the file size of this link is ignored while calculating the fake filesystem size, so that the used size with an otherwise empty fake filesystem can always be assumed to be 0. Note also that the temp directory may not be what you expect, if you emulate another file system. For example, if you emulate Windows under Linux, the default temp directory will be at `C:\\tmp`. User rights ----------- If you run ``pyfakefs`` tests as root (this happens by default if run in a docker container), ``pyfakefs`` also behaves as a root user, for example can write to write-protected files. This may not be the expected behavior, and can be changed. ``Pyfakefs`` has a rudimentary concept of user rights, which differentiates between root user (with the user id 0) and any other user. By default, ``pyfakefs`` assumes the user id of the current user, but you can change that using ``pyfakefs.helpers.set_uid()`` in your setup. This allows to run tests as non-root user in a root user environment and vice verse. Another possibility to run tests as non-root user in a root user environment is the convenience argument :ref:`allow_root_user`: .. code:: python from pyfakefs.fake_filesystem_unittest import TestCase class SomeTest(TestCase): def setUp(self): self.setUpPyfakefs(allow_root_user=False) ``Pyfakefs`` also handles file permissions under UNIX systems while accessing files. If accessing files as another user and/or group, the respective group/other file permissions are considered. .. _usage_with_mock_open: Pyfakefs and mock_open ---------------------- If you patch ``open`` using ``mock_open`` before the initialization of ``pyfakefs``, it will not work properly, because the ``pyfakefs`` initialization relies on ``open`` working correctly. Generally, you should not need ``mock_open`` if using ``pyfakefs``, because you always can create the files with the needed content using ``create_file``. This is true for patching any filesystem functions--avoid patching them while working with ``pyfakefs``. If you still want to use ``mock_open``, make sure it is only used while patching is in progress. For example, if you are using ``pytest`` with the ``mocker`` fixture used to patch ``open``, make sure that the ``fs`` fixture is passed before the ``mocker`` fixture to ensure this: .. code:: python def test_mock_open_incorrect(mocker, fs): # causes a recursion error mocker.patch("builtins.open", mocker.mock_open(read_data="content")) def test_mock_open_correct(fs, mocker): # works correctly mocker.patch("builtins.open", mocker.mock_open(read_data="content")) Pathlib.Path objects created outside of tests --------------------------------------------- An pattern which is more often seen with the increased usage of ``pathlib`` is the creation of global ``pathlib.Path`` objects (instead of string paths) that are imported into the tests. As these objects are created in the real filesystem, they do not have the same attributes as fake ``pathlib.Path`` objects, and both will always compare as not equal, regardless of the path they point to: .. code:: python import pathlib # This Path was made in the real filesystem, before the test # stands up the fake filesystem FILE_PATH = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent / "file.csv" def test_path_equality(fs): # This Path was made after the fake filesystem is set up, # and thus patching within pathlib is in effect fake_file_path = pathlib.Path(str(FILE_PATH)) assert FILE_PATH == fake_file_path # fails, compares different objects assert str(FILE_PATH) == str(fake_file_path) # succeeds, compares the actual paths Generally, mixing objects in the real filesystem and the fake filesystem is problematic and better avoided. .. note:: This problem only happens in Python versions up to 3.10. In Python 3.11, `pathlib` has been restructured so that a pathlib path no longer contains a reference to the original filesystem accessor, and it can safely be used in the fake filesystem. .. _nested_patcher_invocation: Nested file system fixtures and Patcher invocations --------------------------------------------------- ``pyfakefs`` does not support nested faked file systems. Instead, it uses reference counting on the single fake filesystem instance. That means, if you are trying to create a fake filesystem inside a fake filesystem, only the reference count will increase, and any arguments you may pass to the patcher or fixture are ignored. Likewise, if you leave a nested fake filesystem, only the reference count is decreased and nothing is reverted. There are some situations where that may happen, probably without you noticing: * If you use the module- or session based variants of the ``fs`` fixture (e.g. ``fs_module`` or ``fs_session``), you may still use the ``fs`` fixture in single tests. This will practically reference the module- or session based fake filesystem, instead of creating a new one. .. code:: python @pytest.fixture(scope="module", autouse=True) def use_fs(fs_module): # do some setup... yield fs_module def test_something(fs): do_more_fs_setup() test_something() # the fs setup done in this test is not reverted! * If you invoke a ``Patcher`` instance inside a test with the ``fs`` fixture (or with an active ``fs_module`` or ``fs_session`` fixture), this will be ignored. For example: .. code:: python def test_something(fs): with Patcher(allow_root_user=False): # root user is still allowed do_stuff() * The same is true, if you use ``setUpPyfakefs`` or ``setUpClassPyfakefs`` in a unittest context, or if you use the ``patchfs`` decorator. ``Patcher`` instances created in the tests will be ignored likewise. .. _failing_dyn_patcher: Tests failing after a test using pyfakefs ----------------------------------------- If previously passing tests fail after a test using ``pyfakefs``, something may be wrong with reverting the patches. The most likely cause is a problem with the dynamic patcher, which is invoked if modules are loaded dynamically during the tests. These modules are removed after the test, and reloaded the next time they are imported, to avoid any remaining patched functions or variables. Sometimes, there is a problem with that reload. If you want to know if your problem is indeed with the dynamic patcher, you can switch it off by setting :ref:`use_dynamic_patch` to `False` (here an example with pytest): .. code:: python @pytest.fixture def fs_no_dyn_patch(): with Patcher(use_dynamic_patch=False): yield def test_something(fs_no_dyn_patch): ... # do the testing If in this case the following tests pass as expected, the dynamic patcher is indeed the problem. If your ``pyfakefs`` test also works with that setting, you may just use this. Otherwise, the dynamic patcher is needed, and the concrete problem has to be fixed. There is the possibility to add a hook for the cleanup of a specific module, which allows to change the process of unloading the module. This is currently used in ``pyfakefs`` for two cases: to reload ``django`` views instead of just unloading them (needed due to some django internals), and for the reload of a specific module in ``pandas``, which does not work out of the box. A cleanup handler takes the module name as an argument, and returns a Boolean that indicates if the cleanup was handled (by returning `True`), or if the module should still be unloaded. This handler has to be added to the patcher: .. code:: python def handler_no_cleanup(_name): # This is the simplest case: no cleanup is done at all. # This makes only sense if you are sure that no file system functions are called. return True @pytest.fixture def my_fs(): with Patcher(): patcher["modulename"] = handler_no_cleanup yield As this may not be trivial, we recommend to write an issue in ``pyfakefs`` with a reproducible example. We will analyze the problem, and if we find a solution we will either get this fixed in ``pyfakefs`` (if it is related to a commonly used module), or help you to resolve it. .. _`multiprocessing`: https://docs.python.org/3/library/multiprocessing.html .. _`subprocess`: https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html .. _`sqlite3`: https://docs.python.org/3/library/sqlite3.html .. _`GitPython`: https://pypi.org/project/GitPython/ .. _`plumbum`: https://pypi.org/project/plumbum/ .. _`Pillow`: https://pypi.org/project/Pillow/ .. _`pandas`: https://pypi.org/project/pandas/ .. _`xlrd`: https://pypi.org/project/xlrd/ .. _`openpyxl`: https://pypi.org/project/openpyxl/