django-nose

What it is and what it does

django-nose bridges the nose test runner into Django's testing infrastructure, replacing Django's default test command with one that uses nose's discovery and execution logic. It lets you run tests from specific apps, modules, or classes without importing everything into a tests/__init__.py file, and it supports nose plugins for extended functionality.

The package also provides optional performance features: fixture bundling (which can speed up fixture-based tests), database reuse to cut startup time, and hygienic TransactionTestCases that reduce unnecessary database flushes. It has been tested with MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. However, both nose and django-nose have been in maintenance mode for years; the sole maintainer is no longer an active user, and the description explicitly recommends new projects use pytest or Django's built-in unittest framework instead.

Use it for:

• Run tests from only your app modules without executing all INSTALLED_APPS tests by default.
• Use nose plugins (like coverage or test selection plugins) within Django's test command.
• Speed up fixture-based test suites using the optional fixture bundling feature.
• Reduce test startup time by enabling database reuse across test runs with REUSE_DB setting.
• Run a single test, test class, or test module directly from the command line without manual imports.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Integrates the nose test runner into Django's test command, enabling selective test discovery and execution with nose plugins and performance optimizations like fixture bundling and database reuse.

No, not for new projects. The package is abandoned (maintenance mode since 2015, last release 2020), and its own documentation recommends pytest or Django's unittest framework for new work. Install only if maintaining an existing codebase already using django-nose; for new Django projects, use pytest or Django's built-in testing framework instead.

Install

django-nose on PyPI

pip install django-nose

uv add django-nose

poetry add django-nose

Installing django-nose

Before you install

Low install friction with a single runtime dependency (nose). However, the package is in abandoned maintenance status since at least 2015, with the last release in 2020. The sole maintainer is no longer an active user, and the description explicitly recommends new projects consider pytest or Django's built-in unittest framework instead.

License in practice

BSD license is permissive and poses no restrictions on use, modification, or distribution in commercial or private projects.

Quickstart

pip install django-nose

# In settings.py:
INSTALLED_APPS = (
    ...
    'django_nose',
    ...
)
TEST_RUNNER = 'django_nose.NoseTestSuiteRunner'

Requires nose 1.2.1 or later as a runtime dependency; package is abandoned and not recommended for new projects.

Verify before relying

• Whether fixture bundling and database reuse optimizations remain effective with modern Django and Python versions.
• Compatibility with Django versions released after 2.2 (fact sheet documents support only through Django 2.2).
• Whether nose plugins continue to work reliably given nose's own maintenance-mode status.

Package facts

Evidence: django_nose-1.4.7-py2.py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: django, nose, django-nose

Tags

More Testing packages