Timeout Mark

Timeout Mark

Tests that hang or take too long can block your test suite. The @pytest.mark.timeout decorator ensures tests finish within a time limit.

Installation

The timeout plugin is not built into pytest. Install it separately:

pip install pytest-timeout

Basic Usage

import pytest
import time

@pytest.mark.timeout(5)
def test_quick_operation():
    result = fast_function()
    assert result is not None

@pytest.mark.timeout(1)
def test_must_finish_quickly():
    time.sleep(0.5)
    assert True

If the test runs longer than the specified seconds, pytest raises a TimeoutError.

Global Timeout

Set a default timeout for all tests in pytest.ini:

[pytest]
timeout = 30
timeout_method = thread

Individual tests can override this with their own @pytest.mark.timeout.

Timeout Methods

Two methods are available for enforcing timeouts:

• signal (default on Unix) - Uses OS signals. Cannot be used in non-main threads.
• thread - Uses a background thread. Works everywhere but may not interrupt some blocking calls.

[pytest]
timeout = 10
timeout_method = thread