Adds an exit parameter to unittest.main(). If False main no longer
calls sys.exit.
Closes issue 3379.
Michael Foord
diff --git a/Doc/library/unittest.rst b/Doc/library/unittest.rst
index 16da21c..065832d 100644
--- a/Doc/library/unittest.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/unittest.rst
@@ -1364,7 +1364,7 @@
subclasses to provide a custom ``TestResult``.
-.. function:: main([module[, defaultTest[, argv[, testRunner[, testLoader]]]]])
+.. function:: main([module[, defaultTest[, argv[, testRunner[, testLoader[, exit]]]]]])
A command-line program that runs a set of tests; this is primarily for making
test modules conveniently executable. The simplest use for this function is to
@@ -1374,4 +1374,18 @@
unittest.main()
The *testRunner* argument can either be a test runner class or an already
- created instance of it.
+ created instance of it. By default ``main`` calls :func:`sys.exit` with
+ an exit code indicating success or failure of the tests run.
+
+ ``main`` supports being used from the interactive interpreter by passing in the
+ argument ``exit=False``. This displays the result on standard output without
+ calling :func:`sys.exit`::
+
+ >>> from unittest import main
+ >>> main(module='test_module', exit=False)
+
+ Calling ``main`` actually returns an instance of the ``TestProgram`` class.
+ This stores the result of the tests run as the ``result`` attribute.
+
+ .. versionchanged:: 2.7
+ The ``exit`` parameter was added.
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/2.7.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/2.7.rst
index 24d4549..92fedb7 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/2.7.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/2.7.rst
@@ -477,6 +477,10 @@
to provide additional information about why the two objects are
matching, much as the new sequence comparison methods do.
+ :func:`unittest.main` now takes an optional ``exit`` argument.
+ If False ``main`` doesn't call :func:`sys.exit` allowing it to
+ be used from the interactive interpreter. :issue:`3379`.
+
* The :func:`is_zipfile` function in the :mod:`zipfile` module will now
accept a file object, in addition to the path names accepted in earlier
versions. (Contributed by Gabriel Genellina; :issue:`4756`.)