--strict option is not related to warnings at all

[nicoddemus]

(venv) $ pytest --help
...
  --strict              run pytest in strict mode, warnings become errors
...

(venv) $ pytest --strict test_something.py 
========================== test session starts ==========================
platform darwin -- Python 3.6.1, pytest-3.1.0, py-1.4.33, pluggy-0.4.0
rootdir: /Users/okken/projects/book/bopytest/Book/code/foo, inifile:
collected 0 items 

=========================== warnings summary ============================
test_something.py::TestHelper
  cannot collect test class 'TestHelper' because it has a __init__ constructor

-- Docs: http://doc.pytest.org/en/latest/warnings.html
====================== 1 warnings in 0.01 seconds =======================

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

it seems to be used only and explicitly only in the mark module which doesnt issue warnings about unknown marks at the moment

so strict was never implemented correct

[The-Compiler]

--strict was added before pytest had a concept of warnings really - I also remember there was a discussion about how it'd be bad for --strict to introduce more failures (a viewpoint I'm not sure I agree with, FWIW), because everyone is using it for marker warnings already anyways.

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

so we either start a rename process so its named for what it actually does or make it fail more things

[okken]

If it never worked as described, I would recommend changing the help text to state that --strict turns on the requirement that markers have to be declared and remove the reference to warnings.

[nicoddemus]

Definitely!

[nicoddemus]

I propose we just update the help text related to --strict, and document more prominently how to turn warnings into errors: -W error.