Collection-error abort check lives in pytest_runtestloop instead of pytest_collection #15028

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1. bluetech commented on Sep 15, 2026

   

   bluetech

   on Sep 15, 2026

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   Thanks for opening the issue.

   IMO it makes more sense to have this check in pytest_collection than in pytest_runtestloop. I also think it's unlikely to break any plugin. So I think we should do it.

   Since we document the current behavior, changing it is technically a breaking change. This doesn't mean we shouldn't have a PR for it, we will just defer merging it until pytest 10.0 enters development (probably after 9.2 is branched).

   ---

   BTW, another thing I find annoying is that collectonly checking is delegated to pytest_runtestloop implementations. IMO it would have been better if _main would have skipped calling pytest_runtestloop directly.

   This would mean that plugins won't have control of the flow here -- if --collect-only is passed then runtestloop phase would be skipped unconditionally. But it just doesn't make sense to me that handling of a flag which means "skip the runtestloop phase" is delegated to... the runtestloop phase.

   One problem is that the terminal reporter plugin pytest_runtestloop wrapper impl runs some code even when collectonly. I added this code 50d1e81; I don't remember the details but I think I probably picked the wrong hook for this. Might be better done in pytest_sessionfinish or maybe even pytest_cmdline_main.

   Anyway this would be a bigger breaking change and not really related to this issue, so sorry for rambling :)
2. SemTiOne commented on Sep 16, 2026

   

   SemTiOne

   on Sep 16, 2026

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   Ahh that makes sense, thanks.

   The collectonly point is interesting too. That could be a candidate issue?