def setUp(self): somelist = ['a', 'b', 'c', 1, 2, 3] somelist_txt = ', '.join(str(s) for s in somelist) self.ini_params = dict( SOMEBOOL=True, SOMEINT=3, SOMELIST=somelist_txt, SOMEPATH='/path/to/somewhere', SOMETHING='Another setting' ) ini = """[APP] SOMEBOOL = {SOMEBOOL} SOMEINT = {SOMEINT} SOMELIST = {SOMELIST} SOMETHING = {SOMETHING} SOMEPATH = {SOMEPATH} """ ini = ini.format(**self.ini_params) io = StringIO.StringIO() io.write(ini) io.seek(0) self.ini = IniParser() self.ini.readfp(io)