title: Setup and teardown functions executed once for all nosetests tests
body: <p>How to execute setup and teardown functions once for all nosetests tests?</p>
  
  <pre><code>def common_setup():
      #time consuming code
      pass
  
  def common_teardown():
      #tidy up
      pass
  
  def test_1():
      pass
  
  def test_2():
      pass
  
  #desired behavior
  common_setup()
  test_1()
  test_2()
  common_teardown()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Note that there exists a <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12427734/how-can-i-define-one-setup-function-for-all-nosetests-tests?s=1%7C3.6396">similar question</a> with an answer that is not working with python 2.7.9-1, python-unittest2 0.5.1-1 and python-nose 1.3.6-1 after replacing the dots with <code>pass</code> and adding the line <code>import unittest</code>.
  Unfortunately my reputation is too low to comment on that.</p>