Create a separate clean database for tests in django - django

Question

Hi I would like to create a separate empty database for tests. I read on django docs (https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.1/topics/testing/overview/)
that :
The default test database names are created by prepending test_ to the value of each NAME in DATABASES. When using SQLite, the tests will use an in-memory database by default (i.e., the database will be created in memory, bypassing the filesystem entirely!). The TEST dictionary in DATABASES offers a number of settings to configure your test database. For example, if you want to use a different database name, specify NAME in the TEST dictionary for any given database in DATABASES.
So I tried:
DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
},
'test_db': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'test_db.sqlite3'),
}
}
but tests still use the default database when running them with
./manage.py test
How can I create and specify a new, empty database for tests purposes?

Answer 1

I think you misread the documentation. Django automatically uses a separate database.
Say your config file looks like:
DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
}
}
Then Django will not use the 'default' database, if the name of the database is 'FOO', it will create a database with the name test_FOO. Such that testing and running the Django project should - without of course "patching" this behaviour - not interfere (at least not the databases).
If you however want to specify a different NAME (or other attributes), you can add a 'TEST' key [Django-doc] in the databases, like:
DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
'TEST': {
'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'other_db.sqlite3'),
}
}
}