title: Override existing configuration when using nose in Python in a script
body: <p>I'm trying to setup Python to execute nose, but <strong>only on an existing application</strong> I'm developing locally. I don't want nose running around all libraries that are currently installed. I do, however, want nose to discover any tests within the current working directory and child directories.</p>
  
  <p>To start with, all I'm trying to do is make sure that the arguments I'm passing are being used (solved by @need-batchelder below). However, at the moment it looks like the arguments I am passing are being ignored, and global discovery of the tests is occurring (i.e. picking up tests from the python folder too. </p>
  
  <p>From <a href="https://nose.readthedocs.org/en/latest/usage.html#options" rel="nofollow">the docs</a>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>     -V, --version
       Output nose version and exit
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Running nosetests -V from the command line produces the expected version output:</p>
  
  <pre><code>     nosetests -V
       nosetests-script.py version 1.2.1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, the following test script starts running every test it can find, <strong>including those of libraries installed in the python path</strong> and not part of the current working directory , <strong>even though it is located in the root of the application</strong>:</p>
  
  <pre class="lang-python prettyprint-override"><code>import nose, os
  
  def main():
      print os.getcwd()
      x=raw_input() #This is just so I can see the output of the cwd before it launches into testing everything it can find.
      result = nose.run(argv=['-V']) 
  
  if __name__ == '__main__':
      main()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Here's what I've tried:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Using nose.main() , x=nose.core.run() , x=nose.run().</li>
  <li>Passing the arguments directly to nose.run() and using a list.</li>
  <li>Using a nose.cfg file.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong> Trying @ned-batchelder 's suggestion allows me to run nose with given arguments, but doesn't allow discovery of tests within the application folders. So if I do that, I can pass arguments but I can't test my application.</p>