I often write unit tests that do this. In my opinion it is simple and straightforward and effective. Some purists will insist that a unit test shouldn't write the file system or touch a database or use any other external resource, but I think that is silly - if the job of a bit of code is to write a file or interact with the database, then the simplest way to test it is to check the file or database. As long as the tests run fast enough it's OK. (For me, a unit test on a single module should ideally run in well under a second.)
Alternately you can use StringIO or other substitutes for files in your tests. But somewhere in your test system you probably want to make sure the actual file is there on disk, whether it is in a unit test or acceptance test.
Ok, that leads me to my next question. Currently, I have a class that I want to unit test, but it contains a semaphore from another class. Now, I could make the semaphore a global variable, or I bring in the other class. One violates "good" programming principles and the other violates the unit testing principles. Is there another way?
-Tino
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