pytest-unused-fixtures

A pytest plugin to list unused fixtures after a test run.

The plugin watches all fixtures which are used in a test run, and then compares it to all the fixtures available in the same test collection. It then prints out all the fixtures which were not used, groupped by where they were defined.

Running the tests is required to accurately record which fixtures are used, as pytest provides ways of dynamically requesting fixtures, and pure static analysis will not catch those.

Installation

$ pip install pytest-unused-fixtures

Options

Option Name	Type	Description
--unused-fixtures	switch	Enable plugin
--unused-fixtures-ignore-path	string*	Ignore paths for consideration of unused fixtures
--unused-fixtures-context	array<string>	Only consider fixtures missing if defined in these directories
--unused-fixtures-fail-when-present	switch	Fail pytest session if unused fixtures are present

Usage

After installing the package, the plugin is enabled by adding the switch --unused-fixtures.

Paths of fixtures can be ignored with one or multiple --unused-fixtures-ignore-path arguments. For example --unused-fixtures-ignore-path=venv will ignore all fixtures defined in the venv folder.

Alternatively, you can limit the scope in which the plugin looks for unused fixtures to a specific directory or directories. For example:

Limit scope to one directory This example will only display unused fixtures that were defined in the tests folder

pytest tests --unused-fixtures --unused-fixtures-context tests

Limit scope to multiple directories This example will only display unused fixtures that were defined in the directory1 and directory2/sub-directory folders

pytest tests --unused-fixtures --unused-fixtures-context directory1 directory2/sub-directory

Fail test session By default, when you use the --unused-fixtures switch, the plugin will exit with the same exit code pytest would have used if running without the plugin. Add the switch --unused-fixtures-fail-when-present and the pytest session will return a non-zero exit code if there are unused fixtures.

Ignoring specific fixtures from report

Sometimes there will be fixture which are unused on purpose, for example when used in tests which are skipped by default. A decorator is provided for ignoring fixtures from the unused report. See the example for usage:

import pytest
from pytest_unused_fixtures import ignore_unused_fixture

@pytest.fixture
@ignore_unused_fixture
def ignored_fixture():
    pass

Development

Poetry (dependencies) and pre-commit (coding standards) are required for development. There are some tests, obviously written in pytest.

$ poetry install
$ pre-commit install
$ pytest tests

Thanks

Many thanks to

• pytest-deadfixtures for inspiration for this project
• pytest-durations for inspirations in parts of the implementation

Changelog

0.2.0 (Mar 15, 2025)

• Test only on Pytest 8
• Add --unused-fixtures-context
• Add --unused-fixtures-fail-when-present
• Support Python 3.13

0.1.5 (Apr 8, 2024)

• Support Pytest 8

0.1.4 (Aug 8, 2023)

• Bump versions, add CI

0.1.3 (Jun 30, 2023)

• Print line number
• Support Python 3.9

0.1.2 (Jun 15, 2023)

• Fix typo, add repository to PyPI
• Update location handling with respect to showing fixture locations and ignoring paths

0.1.1 (Jun 14, 2023)

• Fix location handling
• Add decorator for ignoring fixtures from report

0.1.0 (Jun 14, 2023)

• First Release