This post shows how to mock one or more Python functions for unit testing.

I am using Python 3.11 and its standard library.

Python subprocess

I was writing a Python script to execute some kubectl command. Since I couldn’t access a cluster to test my script, I thought that I could test it using a mock of kubectl. I didn’t need to mock the API request and response, I just needed a JSON response for each kubectl invocation.

The first idea that came to my mind was:

• write a bash function to mock kubectl
• export the function with export -f kubectl
• write a bunch of test in Bats

Even if Bats tests were very easy and fast to setup, it didn’t work: my Python script called always the real kubectl command, not its mocked version.

My Python script was invoking the kubectl tool using the subprocess library. I think that this behaviour is due to the fact that subprocess module spawns a new process, so it doesn’t inherit the exported variables in the shell.

Then, I searched how to mock subprocess module without success. So, I simplified even more and I decided to mock my Python functions: the mocks should return a different JSON output based on inputs, like a switch-case statement.

Mocking a python function

The unittest.mock module contains the patch decorator that is used to patch functions, indeed.

Assume you have a script.py that calls kubectl to get namespaces:

# script.py
import json
import subprocess

def get_namespaces(label: str = '') -> list:
  process = subprocess.Popen(
    ['kubectl', 'get', 'namespaces', '-l', label, '-o', 'json'],
    stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
    stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
  )
  stdout, stderr = process.communicate()
  if stderr:
    print(stderr)
    return []
  namespaces = json.loads(stdout.decode('utf-8'))

  return [ns['metadata']['name'] for ns in namespaces['items']]

def complex_tool():
  namespaces = get_namespaces()
  ...

Then you create test_script.py to test get_namespaces:

import script

import unittest
from unittest.mock import patch

def get_namespaces_return_value():
  with open('tests/fixtures/namespaces.json') as namespaces_file:
    json_data = json.load(namespaces_file)
    return [ns['metadata']['name'] for ns in json_data['items']]

@patch('script.get_namespaces')
def test_complex_tool(
    get_namespaces_mock,
  ):
  """
  Test that get_namespaces returns all namespaces
  """
  get_namespaces_mock.return_value = get_namespaces_return_value()

  out = script.complex_tool()
  # assertions...

The steps to mock the get_namespaces function are:

• define a function like get_namespaces_side_effect that mocks the real function get_namespaces. In my case, the mock returns the content of a json file.
• Define the test function like test_complex_tool but apply the patch decorator that takes as argument the function to be patched, in my case script.get_namespaces.
• The test function test_complex_tool needs an argument, get_namespaces_mock, whose value is set with a Mock object by the patch decorator.
• Inside the test function test_complex_tool, modify the behaviour of the mock get_namespaces_mock as you need: in my case, I set the return value of the mock to be the string returned by get_namespaces_return_value

Mocking many functions

To mock many functions, the order which you pass the mocks to the test function matters. The first decorator must be the last function argument:

@patch('script.get_namespaces')
@patch('script.get_pods')
def test_complex_tool(
    get_pods_mock,
    get_namespaces_mock,
  ):
  """
  Test that get_namespaces returns all namespaces
  """
  get_namespaces_mock.return_value = get_namespaces_return_value()
  get_pods_mock.return_value = get_pods_return_value()

  out = script.complex_tool()
  # assertions...

Parametrize the mocked function

Up to now we customised only the return value of the mock function: the mock returns always the same value whenever it is called. But often our functions can take some inputs and the output depends on the inputs.

To implement a mock with such a behaviour, we can set the Mock.side_effect property to a function. For instance, assume the get_pods function has an argument to filter pods based on the namespace:

# script.py

def get_pods(namespace: str) -> list:
  ...
  return pods

In the test_script.py, we define a function that returns different values based on the input namespace:

# test_script.py

def get_pods_side_effect(namespace: str) -> list:
  if namespace == 'dev':
    return ['pod1-dev', 'pod2-dev']
  if namespace == 'prod':
    return ['pod1-prod', 'pod2-prod']
  return ['pod1', 'pod2']

Then, in the test cases you set the side_effect property with the get_pods_side_effect function:

@patch('script.get_namespaces')
@patch('script.get_pods')
def test_complex_tool(
    get_pods_mock,
    get_namespaces_mock,
  ):
  """
  Test that get_namespaces returns all namespaces
  """
  get_namespaces_mock.return_value = get_namespaces_return_value()
  get_pods_mock.side_effect = get_pods_return_value

  # act ...
  # assert ...

Conclusion

Python unittest module provides a powerful Mock object, that allows to mock any function, and the patch decorator to be applied to test cases.

Remember that the order of test case arguments must the opposite of the patch decorators.

If the mock should return always the same values use the return_value property, otherwise use the side_effect property to returns different outputs based on the inputs.

To not duplicate the patch decorator to every test case function, it is possible to decorate the test case class directly.