The Azure SDK team's Python CI leverages the tool `tox` to distribute tests to virtual environments, handle test dependency installation, and coordinate tooling reporting during PR/CI builds. This means that a dev working locally can reproduce _exactly_ what the build machine is doing.
[A Brief Overview of Tox](https://tox.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
#### A Monorepo and Tox in Harmony
Traditionally, the `tox.ini` file for a package sits _alongside the setup.py_ in source code. The `azure-sdk-for-python` necessarily does not adhere to this policy. There are over one-hundred packages contained here-in. That's a lot of `tox.ini` files to maintain!
Instead, the CI system leverages an tox plugin called `tox-monorepo`. This plugin allows `tox` to act as if the `tox.ini` is located in whatever directory you executed tox in!
#### Tox Environments
A given `tox.ini` works on the concept of `test environments`. A given test environment is a combination of:
1. An identifier (or identifiers)
2. A targeted Python version
1.`tox` will default to base python executing the `tox` command if no Python environment is specified
3. (optionally) an OS platform
Internally `tox` leverages `virtualenv` to create each test environment's virtual environment.
This means that once the `tox` workflow is in place, all tests will be executed _within a virtual environment._
To see the default environments from a specific `tox.ini` file, use the command `tox -l` in the same directory as the file itself.
> sdk-for-python/eng/tox> tox -l
```
whl
sdist
```
Unfortunately, the command `tox -l` only returns the _default_ test builds. The common `tox.ini` file also supports `lint` and `mypy` environments.
### Example Usage of the common Azure SDK For Python `tox.ini`
Basic usage of `tox` within this monorepo is:
1.`pip install tox tox-monorepo`
2.`cd` to target package folder
3. run `tox -c path/to/tox.ini`
The common `tox.ini` location is `eng/tox/tox.ini` within the repository.
If at any time you want to blow away the tox created virtual environments and start over, simply append `-r` to any tox invocation!
#### Example `azure-core` mypy
1.`cd` to `sdk/core/azure-core`
2. Run `tox -e mypy -c ../../../eng/tox/tox.ini`
#### Example `azure-storage-blob` tests
1.`cd` to `sdk/storage/azure-storage-blob`
2. Execute `tox -c ../../../eng/tox/tox.ini`
Note that we didn't provide an `environment` argument for this example. Reason here is that the _default_ environment selected by our common `tox.ini` file is one that runs `pytest`.
Used for test execution across the spectrum of all the platforms we want to support. Maintained at a `platform specific` level just in case we run into platform-specific bugs.
* Installs the wheel, runs tests using the wheel
```
\> tox -e whl -c <pathtotox.ini>
```
#### `sdist` environment
Used for the local dev loop.
* Installs package in editable mode
* Runs tests using the editable mode installation, not the wheel
```
\> tox -e sdist -c <pathtotox.ini>
```
#### `lint` environment
Pylint install and run.
```
\> tox -e lint -c <pathtotox.ini>
```
#### `mypy` environment
Mypy install and run.
```
\> tox -e mypy -c <pathtotox.ini>
```
### Custom Pytest Arguments
`tox` supports custom arguments, and the defined pytest environments within the common `tox.ini` also allow these. Essentially, separate the arguments you want passed to `pytest` by a `--` in your tox invocation.
[Tox Documentation on Positional Arguments](https://tox.readthedocs.io/en/latest/example/general.html#interactively-passing-positional-arguments)
**Example: Invoke tox, breaking into the debugger on failure**
Daily dev build version of Azure sdk packages for python are available and are uploaded to Azure devops feed nightly. We have also created a tox environment to test a package against dev built version of dependent packages. Below is the link to Azure devops feed.
