Troubleshooting Django Test Suite Hanging

Based on the Django contribution documentation, it's normal for the test suite to take several minutes to run as it contains thousands of tests. However, a test that appears to hang indefinitely is not expected behavior.

Possible Causes and Solutions

1. Test Dependencies: Some tests require external libraries. If a test is hanging, it might be due to missing dependencies.

   • Ensure you've installed all required dependencies with python -m pip install -r requirements/py3.txt

2. Database Backend Issues: The default test configuration uses SQLite, but some tests might have issues with specific database backends.

   • Try running a subset of tests to isolate the problem

3. System Resources: The test suite is resource-intensive and might be struggling on your system.

   • Try closing other applications to free up resources

Troubleshooting Steps

1. Run Specific Test Modules: Instead of running the entire suite, you can run specific test modules:

   ./runtests.py <test_module_name>
   

2. Check Django CI Builds: As mentioned in the documentation, the latest Django "main" branch may not always be stable. Check Django's continuous integration builds to see if others are experiencing similar issues.

3. Verbose Output: Run the tests with verbose output to get more information:

   ./runtests.py --verbosity=2
   

4. Kill and Restart: If a test is truly hanging, you might need to terminate the process and try again, possibly with a different approach.

5. Test with Different Settings: Try running the tests with different settings:

   ./runtests.py --settings=test_sqlite
   

If the issue persists, you might want to report it on the Django issue tracker, providing details about your environment and which specific test appears to be hanging.