Improved test runtime from 352 seconds to 59 seconds by implementing an in-memory sqlite DB and including an option to run migrations on this newly created database by adding a config option called run_migrations to the config_spec and passing it along in app.py to the setup_database function.

mediagoblin/gmg_commands/dbupdate.py

@@ -110,14 +110,22 @@ def run_dbupdate(app_config, global_config):
     in the future, plugins)
     """
 
+    # Set up the database
+    db = setup_connection_and_db_from_config(app_config, migrations=True)
+    #Run the migrations
+    run_all_migrations(db, app_config, global_config)
+
+
+def run_all_migrations(db, app_config, global_config):
+    """
+    Moved the migration part of run_dbupdate to a separate function so
+    it can be used to initialize the database during tests.
+    """
     # Gather information from all media managers / projects
     dbdatas = gather_database_data(
             app_config['media_types'],
             global_config.get('plugins', {}).keys())
 
-    # Set up the database
-    db = setup_connection_and_db_from_config(app_config, migrations=True)
-
     Session = sessionmaker(bind=db.engine)
 
     # Setup media managers for all dbdata, run init/migrate and print info