Th sys.settrace and sys.setprofile functions have the same interface an very similar purpose.  The difference is in the types of events that get reported.  However the tests for these functions are implemented separately and cover different sets of scenarios.  As proposed in python-dev thread, "Does trace modules have a unit test?" [1], this RFE proposes to

"""
Create tracetester helper file with abstract test cases made
from the union of test_sys_settrace and  test_sys_setprofile test
cases and replace the concrete test cases in test_sys_set* with
subclasses that define setmethod, getmethod and expected_output.
"""
[1] http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2010-July/102308.html

See also issue 9315.