Pytest is trying to access sensitive data/private path when running 'pytest --fixtures' on macOS

• a detailed description of the bug or suggestion

When trying to list the available built in fixture in pytest by simply running ‘pytest --fixtures’ an error is thrown as I did not give the permission to access my sensitive data.

Why pytest is trying to access my addressBook?

• output of pip list from the virtual environment you are using

=> pip list Package Version

---

atomicwrites 1.3.0
attrs 19.1.0 importlib-metadata 0.19
more-itertools 7.2.0
packaging 19.1
pip 19.2.3 pluggy 0.12.0 py 1.8.0
pyparsing 2.4.2
pytest 5.1.2
setuptools 41.2.0 six 1.12.0 wcwidth 0.1.7
wheel 0.33.6 zipp 0.6.0

• pytest and operating system versions

=> uname -a Darwin xxxx-MacBook-Pro.local 18.7.0 Darwin Kernel Version 18.7.0: Tue Aug 20 16:57:14 PDT 2019; root:xnu-4903.271.2~2/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

=> pytest --version This is pytest version 5.1.2, imported from /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pytest.py

• minimal example if possible

=> pytest --fixtures =========================================================================================== test session starts ============================================================================================ platform darwin – Python 3.7.4, pytest-5.1.2, py-1.8.0, pluggy-0.12.0 rootdir: /Users/xxxx collected 0 items / 1 errors
cache Return a cache object that can persist state between testing sessions.

cache.get(key, default)
cache.set(key, value)

Keys must be a ``/`` separated value, where the first part is usually the
name of your plugin or application to avoid clashes with other cache users.

Values can be any object handled by the json stdlib module.

capsys Enable text capturing of writes to sys.stdout and sys.stderr.

The captured output is made available via ``capsys.readouterr()`` method
calls, which return a ``(out, err)`` namedtuple.
``out`` and ``err`` will be ``text`` objects.

capsysbinary Enable bytes capturing of writes to sys.stdout and sys.stderr.

The captured output is made available via ``capsysbinary.readouterr()``
method calls, which return a ``(out, err)`` namedtuple.
``out`` and ``err`` will be ``bytes`` objects.

capfd Enable text capturing of writes to file descriptors 1 and 2.

The captured output is made available via ``capfd.readouterr()`` method
calls, which return a ``(out, err)`` namedtuple.
``out`` and ``err`` will be ``text`` objects.

capfdbinary Enable bytes capturing of writes to file descriptors 1 and 2.

The captured output is made available via ``capfd.readouterr()`` method
calls, which return a ``(out, err)`` namedtuple.
``out`` and ``err`` will be ``byte`` objects.

doctest_namespace [session scope] Fixture that returns a :py:class:dict that will be injected into the namespace of doctests.

pytestconfig [session scope] Session-scoped fixture that returns the :class:_pytest.config.Config object.

Example::

    def test_foo(pytestconfig):
        if pytestconfig.getoption("verbose") > 0:
            ...

record_property Add an extra properties the calling test. User properties become part of the test report and are available to the configured reporters, like JUnit XML. The fixture is callable with (name, value), with value being automatically xml-encoded.

Example::

    def test_function(record_property):
        record_property("example_key", 1)

record_xml_attribute Add extra xml attributes to the tag for the calling test. The fixture is callable with (name, value), with value being automatically xml-encoded

record_testsuite_property [session scope] Records a new <property> tag as child of the root <testsuite>. This is suitable to writing global information regarding the entire test suite, and is compatible with xunit2 JUnit family.

This is a ``session``-scoped fixture which is called with ``(name, value)``. Example:

.. code-block:: python

    def test_foo(record_testsuite_property):
        record_testsuite_property("ARCH", "PPC")
        record_testsuite_property("STORAGE_TYPE", "CEPH")

``name`` must be a string, ``value`` will be converted to a string and properly xml-escaped.

caplog Access and control log capturing.

Captured logs are available through the following properties/methods::

* caplog.text            -> string containing formatted log output
* caplog.records         -> list of logging.LogRecord instances
* caplog.record_tuples   -> list of (logger_name, level, message) tuples
* caplog.clear()         -> clear captured records and formatted log output string

monkeypatch The returned monkeypatch fixture provides these helper methods to modify objects, dictionaries or os.environ::

    monkeypatch.setattr(obj, name, value, raising=True)
    monkeypatch.delattr(obj, name, raising=True)
    monkeypatch.setitem(mapping, name, value)
    monkeypatch.delitem(obj, name, raising=True)
    monkeypatch.setenv(name, value, prepend=False)
    monkeypatch.delenv(name, raising=True)
    monkeypatch.syspath_prepend(path)
    monkeypatch.chdir(path)

All modifications will be undone after the requesting
test function or fixture has finished. The ``raising``
parameter determines if a KeyError or AttributeError
will be raised if the set/deletion operation has no target.

recwarn Return a :class:WarningsRecorder instance that records all warnings emitted by test functions.

See http://docs.python.org/library/warnings.html for information
on warning categories.

tmpdir_factory [session scope] Return a :class:_pytest.tmpdir.TempdirFactory instance for the test session.

tmp_path_factory [session scope] Return a :class:_pytest.tmpdir.TempPathFactory instance for the test session.

tmpdir Return a temporary directory path object which is unique to each test function invocation, created as a sub directory of the base temporary directory. The returned object is a py.path.local_ path object.

.. _`py.path.local`: https://py.readthedocs.io/en/latest/path.html

tmp_path Return a temporary directory path object which is unique to each test function invocation, created as a sub directory of the base temporary directory. The returned object is a :class:pathlib.Path object.

.. note::

    in python < 3.6 this is a pathlib2.Path

================================================================================================== ERRORS ================================================================================================== ______________________________________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test session _______________________________________________________________________________________ /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/py/_error.py:66: in checked_call return func(*args, **kwargs) E PermissionError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: ‘/Users/xxxx/Library/Application Support/AddressBook’

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/py/_path/common.py:377: in visit for x in Visitor(fil, rec, ignore, bf, sort).gen(self): /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/py/_path/common.py:429: in gen for p in self.gen(subdir): /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/py/_path/common.py:429: in gen for p in self.gen(subdir): /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/py/_path/common.py:429: in gen for p in self.gen(subdir): /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/py/_path/common.py:414: in gen entries = path.listdir() /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/py/_path/local.py:392: in listdir names = py.error.checked_call(os.listdir, self.strpath) /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/py/_error.py:86: in checked_call raise cls(“%s%r” % (func.name, args)) E py.error.EPERM: [Operation not permitted]: listdir(‘/Users/xxxx/Library/Application Support/AddressBook’,) ============================================================================================= 1 error in 0.14s =============================================================================================

[asottile]

I don’t agree with you – garbage in garbage out essentially. There’s no reason to ever run pytest from / or from ~.

Here’s a much simpler reproduction:

mkdir y
chmod 000 y
pytest

$ pytest 
============================= test session starts ==============================
platform linux -- Python 3.6.8, pytest-5.1.2, py-1.8.0, pluggy-0.12.0
rootdir: /tmp/x
collected 0 items / 1 errors                                                   

==================================== ERRORS ====================================
________________________ ERROR collecting test session _________________________
venv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/py/_error.py:66: in checked_call
    return func(*args, **kwargs)
E   PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/tmp/x/y'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
venv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/py/_path/common.py:377: in visit
    for x in Visitor(fil, rec, ignore, bf, sort).gen(self):
venv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/py/_path/common.py:429: in gen
    for p in self.gen(subdir):
venv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/py/_path/common.py:414: in gen
    entries = path.listdir()
venv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/py/_path/local.py:392: in listdir
    names = py.error.checked_call(os.listdir, self.strpath)
venv/lib/python3.6/site-packages/py/_error.py:86: in checked_call
    raise cls("%s%r" % (func.__name__, args))
E   py.error.EACCES: [Permission denied]: listdir('/tmp/x/y',)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Interrupted: 1 errors during collection !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
=============================== 1 error in 0.12s ===============================

Should this be an error? absolutely

[amdshrif]

@asottile @nicoddemus Thanks for clarifying this.