Clarification on preferred assertion style in Airflow tests

[kyungjunleeme]

Description

I’ve noticed that many recent tests in the Airflow codebase use plain assert statements in the pytest style. At the same time, I see mock.assert_called_once_with(...) and similar mock assertions still being widely used.

I’d like to confirm:

• Is the Airflow project encouraging the exclusive use of assert for consistency?
• Or is it acceptable to use assert_called_once_with, assert_called_with, etc., when working with mocks?

For example, is the following usage still recommended?

mock_func = MagicMock()
mock_func("hello")

# Is this acceptable?
mock_func.assert_called_once_with("hello")

Use case/motivation

No response

Related issues

No response

Are you willing to submit a PR?

• Yes I am willing to submit a PR!

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[kyungjunleeme]

pytest vs unittest style

[potiuk]

We usually discuss such "general" dev questions at devlist - feel free to start thread there.

The main reason is that people might "miss it" between regular things that refer to particular features and issues - and devlist is where topics important for "everyone contributing" are raised. So if it gets to general question on that - you should move the discussion there.

But before you do it - what OTHER way you want to assert if a method has been called in more pytest way, I wonder? Or alternatively what other way you want to do regular "assert" to be more consistend with "assert_called" ? I think that will be first question that will be asked if you directly post the question to devlist - so maybe you can explain how you'd imagin "consistent" use in this case? How would you rewrite one of the examples you mentioned to be more consistent ?

[potiuk]

And generally - even if in Github - this is a discussion, not an issue so I will convert it to a discussion where you can continue explaining.

[kyungjunleeme]

We usually discuss such "general" dev questions at devlist - feel free to start thread there.

@potiuk Thank you for replying. I understand that general development questions are usually discussed on the devlist. I found this mailing list, but I’m not sure how to start a new thread. Also, I’ve heard that posting may require committer access. Could you kindly clarify if non-committers are allowed to post or ask questions there, and if so, how? Thank you very much for your help.

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