Speeding up Django unittests with a template Sqlite database

Question

How do you make Django load a sqlite3 db file into memory when running unittests, instead of generating a new database and initializing schema from scratch?

I have some large JSON fixtures that take a while for Django to load for each test. A workaround I'm imagining is to generate a "template" sqlite3 database, load all schema and fixtures into that, and then simply use that for each unittest, bypassing all fixture loading. Obviously, I would have to update this template whenever I change my schema or fixtures, but that's an acceptable tradeoff if it means each unittest will take seconds instead of minutes to run.

I've accomplished the first step, generated the template database, by: * specifying the db filename in the 'TEST_NAME' database settings field * running a specific unittest that does nothing, so Django will only generate schema and load fixtures * monkeypatched django.test.running.DiscoverRunner.teardown_databases to do nothing, so I can retrieve the db file and save it as my database template

But now I'm stuck on how to get Django to use this file. If I keep the file as my TEST_NAME parameter, Django will simply delete it and regenerate it...but also continue to write it to the filesystem, making it almost 10x slower than the in-memory Sqlite3 database.

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 05 '14 at 07:35

0

To the end of your settings.py file, add:

if 'test' in sys.argv:
    # If you also want to speed up password hashing in test cases.
    PASSWORD_HASHERS = (
        'django.contrib.auth.hashers.MD5PasswordHasher',
    )
    # Use SQLite3 for the database engine during testing.
    DATABASES['default'] = {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': '', # Add the name of your SQLite3 database file here.
        }

answered Jul 05 '14 at 07:35

Nagra

466
3
8

I'm not asking how to use the in-memory sqlite3 database. As I mentioned in my question, I'm already doing this. I'm asking how to copy a specific sqlite3 database file into memory. – Cerin Jul 05 '14 at 22:32
This might be late, but I found this: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.6/topics/testing/advanced/#django.test.runner.DiscoverRunner.setup_databases You can probably set up your own `setup_databases` function that will let you use the database you have created. – Nagra Aug 19 '14 at 19:15

Speeding up Django unittests with a template Sqlite database

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