This patch allows to only run tests which satisfy a glob filter, using the --match (-m) option to regrtest. For example:

  ./python -m test -m "*Signal*" -v test_io

will execute all the signal-related tests in test_io.

See also #12231 for a similar suggestion.

I love the functionality. Running individual tests (or groups of tests) with unittest is a *pain*. I had hoped to solve this through unittest extensions, but this is taking me longer to get to than I had hoped.

So I would like to add this to unittest, but obviously that can't happen for 3.2.

I’d love this in regrtest and unittest.

New changeset 5d7a2bd9a3d1 by Antoine Pitrou in branch '3.2':
Issue #12626: In regrtest, allow to filter tests using a glob filter
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/5d7a2bd9a3d1

New changeset 018e14a46454 by Antoine Pitrou in branch 'default':
Issue #12626: In regrtest, allow to filter tests using a glob filter
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/018e14a46454

I've committed a slightly updated patch that also works with -j.

I didn’t think this would go into a stable version (see #10849 for example).

Well, let's say I don't consider test.regrtest, and especially its myriad options, a public API. The aim is to make bug diagnosis and fixing easier.

I agree with Antoine, as test.support is not a public api adding new features to assist with debugging is fine.