Confusing interaction between rootdir and pytest.ini

[nicoddemus]

From #6359 (comment):

Unfortunately I agree that the current interaction between rootdir and ini files is far from clear, and someone just looking at --rootdir would assume that it should point to the root of your repository/project, and from there on pytest would find pytest.ini files and start collection, but this is currently not the case.

I've seen more than one issue popping up about this confusion: people assume that --rootdir mydir implies that pytest will look for pytest.ini files and start collection from mydir, which is not the case at all currently.

I think we should change the meaning of --rootdir the option somehow, because I believe it is the main source of confusion, while I don't think it happens when rootdir is found automatically.

An initial proposal:

--rootdir when given:

• Will set config.rootdir to that value (of course).
• Will search from --rootdir and upwards for pytest.ini files.
• If no paths are given in the command line, it will act like testpaths, where collection will be assumed to start from --rootdir.

Thoughts?

It is a change in existing behavior, but I think --rootdir is rarely used, and when used people are usually confused by it.

[erheron]

I was experiencing troubles with understanding of what --rootdir really is too. Maybe it should be issue of documentation rework (for example we could add there some explicit information about what rootdir isn't)?

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

if we change the meaning, we should pick a good name, and deprecate the old argument

[nicoddemus]

if we change the meaning, we should pick a good name, and deprecate the old argument

Any suggestions @RonnyPfannschmidt ? I'm thinking this would be a good addition to 6.0.

[nicoddemus]

Another issue related to this: #7888