python, unittest: is there a way to pass command line options to the app

Question

I have a module that imports unittest and has some TestCases. I would like to accept some command line options (for example below, the name of a data file), but when I try to pass the option I get the message "option -i not recognized". Is it possible to have unittest + provide options to the app (note: I'm using optparse to handle the options)? Thanks.

$ python test_app_data.py -i data_1.txt

option -i not recognized

=====================

follow-up: this is an implementation of the suggested solution:

import cfg_master  #has the optparse option-handling code

...

if __name__ == '__main__':    
    #add you app's options here...
    options_tpl = ('-i', '--in_dir', '-o', '--out_dir')
    del_lst = []
    for i,option in enumerate(sys.argv):
        if option in options_tpl:
            del_lst.append(i)
            del_lst.append(i+1)

    del_lst.reverse()
    for i in del_lst:
        del sys.argv[i]

    unittest.main()

Answer 1

In your if __name__ == '__main__': section, which you're not showing us, you'll need to optparse and then del sys.argv[1:] before you pas control to unittest code, so that the latter code doesn't try to interpret your command line options again when you've already dealt with them. (It's a bit harder to have some options of your own and also pass some down to unittest, though it can be done if you do have such complex needs).

Answer 2

You should not take arguments and options to run unittests, as you make them run under different, less predictable conditions this way. You should figure out why you need to run tests with different data, and make you test suite complete enough to cover the ground of all data sets without being run differently each time.