Is there a Python unittest function that runs once at the start and end of a test suite?

General Discussions
2

As of Python 2.7, the unittest framework introduces setUpClass and tearDownClass, which allow you to execute setup and teardown operations for the entire test class, rather than before and after each individual test.

These functions are defined with the @classmethod decorator and are executed only once for the class.

Example:

class TestSequenceFunctions(unittest.TestCase):

    @classmethod
    def setUpClass(cls):
        start()  # Launched at the beginning, once for the class

    @classmethod
    def tearDownClass(cls):
        end()  # Launched at the end, once for the class

    def test_choice(self):
        element = random.choice(self.seq)
        self.assertTrue(element in self.seq)

    def test_sample(self):
        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
            random.sample(self.seq, 20)
        for element in random.sample(self.seq, 5):
            self.assertTrue(element in self.seq)