How to read environment variables in pytest.ini

[1Mark]

Is there a way to read environment variables in pytest.ini ? pytest-env does the opposite and lets you set environment variables in there but my issue is different.

pytest-mongodb requires these three variables to be set in pytest.ini

[pytest]
mongodb_engine = pymongo
mongodb_host = mongodb://user:passwd@server.tld
mongodb_dbname = mydbname

However, I would like pytest.ini to read my environement variables instead.

[pytest]
mongodb_engine = $MONGO_ENGINE
mongodb_host = $MONGO_HOST
mongodb_dbname = $MONGO_DBNAME

Now obviously this isn't supported out the box.

Options:

1. Append to pytestconfig.inicfg but pytestconfig is a fixture and fixtures can't be used in hooks AFAIK. So it won't execute before pytest-mongodb begins - which will cause issues.
2. Raise a PR to pytest-mongodb which solves the issue for this repo but not for all the others using this annoying design.
3. Any other suggestions???
4. I use tox so if I invoke pytest via tox it solves the issue (via passenv) but this isn't how vscode operates with tests so it will be problematic and I won't be able just to use pytest raw on the CLI

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

pytest will NOT substutute env vars in the configfile

whatever uses the variables will have to do that on its own so i recommend 2.

as for passing credentials "propperly" to pytest, im currently not aware of a plugin that resolves it

[1Mark]

So there isn't a programatic way to set the value for a variables in the pytest.ini early on?

[1Mark]

I was considering https://docs.pytest.org/en/latest/example/markers.html#custom-marker-and-command-line-option-to-control-test-runs

[1Mark]

I guess at least may be worth having a PR to mention that this isn't possible within pytest to avoid people wasting time :). As for pytest-mongodb I will try to migrate away from it since it seems it was abandoned since 2019 - or it's just perfect since 2019 but I assume not.

[1Mark]

def pytest_addoption(parser, pluginmanager):
    parser.addini('mongo_engine', help='pytest-mongodb requires the mongo engine', type='string', default='pymongo')

I did try this but it's not appending,

in the test when I check the pytestconfig.inicfg it doesn't have the variable.

[1Mark]

*I added the pytest_addoption in conftest.py

It is being invoked but the changes aren't persisting