Running SetUp a single time on Python unittests

gistfile1.txt

import unittest
from my_program import MyClass
 
class MyClassTest(unittest.TestCase):
    # First define a class variable that determines 
    # if setUp was ever run
    ClassIsSetup = False
 
    def setUp(self):
        # If it was not setup yet, do it
        if not self.ClassIsSetup:
            print "Initializing testing environment"
            # run the real setup
            self.setupClass()
            # remember that it was setup already
            self.__class__.ClassIsSetup = True
                                
    def setupClass(self):
        # Do the real setup
        unittest.TestCase.setUp(self)
        # you want to have persistent things to test
        self.__class__.myclass = MyClass()
        # (you can call this later with self.myclass)