---
name: "tox-stages"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "tox-stages"
version: "0.2.0-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/tox-stages"
---

# tox-stages(1)

run Tox environments in groups, stop on failure

## NAME

**tox-stages** – run Tox environments in groups, stop on failure

## SYNOPSIS

**tox-stages** \[**-f** *filename*\] **available**

**tox-stages** \[**-f** *filename*\] **run** \[**-****-arg** *arg...* \| **-A** *arg...*\] \[**-****-match-spec** *spec* \| **-m** *spec*\] \[**-****-parallel** *spec* \| **-p** *spec*\] \[*stage...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **tox-stages** tool is used to run Tox test environments in several stages, one or more environments running in parallel at each stage. If any of the test environments run at some stage should fail, **tox-stages** will stop, not run anything further, and exit with a non-zero exit code. This allows quick static check tools like e.g. **ruff** to stop the testing process early, and also allows scenarios like running all the static check tools before the package's unit or functional tests to avoid unnecessary failures on simple errors.

## TAGGING TOX TEST ENVIRONMENTS

The **tox-stages** tool expects to be able to invoke an installation of Tox that will load the **tox\_trivtags** plugin module distributed as part of the **test-stages** library. This module will add a *tags* list of strings to the definition of each Tox environment; those tags can be specified in the *tox.ini* file as follows:

```
[testenv:format]
```

```
skip_install = True
```

```
tags =
```

```
  check
```

```
  format
```

```
deps =
```

```
  ...
```

## SUBCOMMANDS

### available - can the tox-stages tool be run on this system

The **tox-stages** **available** subcommand exits with a code of zero (indicating success) if there is a suitable version of Tox installed in the same Python execution environment as the **tox-stages** tool itself.

### run - run some Tox environments in stages

The **tox-stages** **run** subcommand starts the process of running Tox test environments, grouped in stages. If any of the test environments run at some stage should fail, **tox-stages** will stop, not run anything further, and exit with a non-zero exit code.

The **run** subcommand accepts the following options:

- **-****-arg** *argument* \| **-A** *argument*

  Pass an additional command-line argument to each Tox invocation. This option may be specified more than once, and the arguments will be passed in the order given.

- **-****-match-spec** *spec* \| **-m** *spec*

  Pass an additional specification for Tox environments to satisfy, e.g. “-m '@check'” to only run static checkers and not unit tests.

- **-****-parallel** *spec* \| **-p** *spec*

  Specify which stages to run in parallel. The *spec* parameter is a list of stage indices (1, 2, etc.) or ranges (4-6); the tests in the specified stages will be run in parallel, while the tests in the rest of the stages will not. By default, all tests are run in parallel. The special values “” (an empty string), “0” (a single character, the digit zero), or “none” will be treated as an empty set, and no tests will be run in parallel.

The positional arguments to the **run** subcommand are interpreted as test stage specifications as described in the parse-stages library's documentation. If no stage specifications are given on the command line, **tox-stages** will read the *pyproject.toml* file in the same directory as the *tox.ini* file, and will look for a *tool.test-stages.stages* list of strings to use.

## FILES

If no stage specifications are given on the command line, **tox-stages** will read the *pyproject.toml* file in the same directory as the *tox.ini* file, and will look for a *tool.test-stages.stages* list of strings to use.

## EXAMPLES

Run all the stages as defined in the *pyproject.toml*\
  file's *tool.test-stages.stages* parameter:

```
tox-stages run
```

Group Tox environments into stages as defined in the *pyproject.toml* file, but then only run the ones marked with the "check" tag that also have names containing the string "format":

```
tox-stages run -m '@check and format'
```

Run a specific set of stages, passing *--* *-k* *slug* as additional Tox arguments so that e.g. a **pytest** environment that uses the Tox *{posargs}* variable may only run a selected subset of tests:

```
tox-stages -A -- -A -k -A slug @check unit-tests
```

Execute a somewhat more complicated recipe:

- \-

  first, run all test environments with names containing "ruff" in parallel

- \-

  then, run the rest of the test environments marked with the "check" tag, but not marked with the "manual" tag, one by one

- \-

  then, run all test environments with names containing "unit" in parallel

- \-

  finally, run the rest of the test environments marked with the "tests" tag, but not marked with the "manual" tag, in parallel

```
tox-stages -p 1,3-4 ruff '@check and not @manual' unit '@tests and not @manual'
```

## AUTHORS

The **tox-stages** tool, along with its documentation, is developed as part of the **test-stages** **library** **by** Peter Pentchev ⟨roam@ringlet.net⟩.