[Fixed]-How to solve PytestConfigWarning: Unknown config option: DJANGO_ SETTINGS_MODULE error?

The accepted answer it’s not answering OP question neither providing solution.

I have encountered the same problem, I’m using Django 4.0 and Pytest 7.2.1

I’m using pytest.ini as configuration file.

Solution:

[tool:pytest]
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE = core.settings.local
python_files = test_*.py

Adding keyword tool solves the problem.

Another thing that might be necessary is adding ENV variable:

export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=mysite.settings 

The warning

PytestConfigWarning: Unknown config option: some-name

means that the config option some-name is not known to pytest or any of the currently installed pytest plugins (just what the warning implies). In particular, here it means that either pytest-django is not installed, or it is not visible to pytest for some reason (e.g. you have installed pytest-django using the wrong pip command).

To troubleshoot, first list all installed plugins that pytest finds using pytest -VV:

$ pytest -VV
This is pytest version 6.2.5, imported from /private/tmp/so/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pytest/__init__.py
setuptools registered plugins:
  pytest-django-4.5.2 at /private/tmp/so/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pytest_django/plugin.py
  pytest-cov-3.0.0 at /private/tmp/so/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pytest_cov/plugin.py

Here, pytest reports that two plugins are found: pytest-cov and pytest-django.

Now, if pytest-django is not listed, check where it was installed by e.g. issuing pip show pytest-django and looking for the path under Location:

$ pip show pytest-django
...
Location: /private/tmp/so/lib/python3.9/site-packages

Or, if pip is not available for you, check where Python import pytest_django package from via

$ python -c 'import pytest_django; print(pytest_django.__path__[0])'
/private/tmp/so/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pytest_django

The paths to site-packages directory in both outputs should match. In this example, both pytest -VV and pip show pytest-django report /private/tmp/so/lib/python3.9/site-packages as the installation path. If those differ, reinstall pytest-django using the correct Python environment.

You should correct your pytest.ini file by removing spaces around =:

[pytest]
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=your_project_name.settings

Note:
per Django structure, your project should have a subfolder with settings.py file in it. You need to point pytest to this file and use dot . instead of /.

Well, In my case I was having an entry py.test --ignore=outofscope in my pytest.ini file, which was causing that warning.

I solved my problem by updating my pytest.ini file.

• look for any warning/error raised by your editor
• remove any extra space when assigning some values

In my case, for some reason pytest was not runnin from the currently activated venv