import nose, sys

def test():
    # do something with the command line arguments
    print sys.argv

if __name__ == '__main__':
    nose.runmodule()

$ python test.py arg
E
======================================================================
ERROR: Failure: ImportError (No module named arg)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nose-0.11.1-py2.6.egg/nose/loader.py", line 368, in loadTestsFromName
    module = resolve_name(addr.module)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nose-0.11.1-py2.6.egg/nose/util.py", line 334, in resolve_name
    module = __import__('.'.join(parts_copy))
ImportError: No module named arg

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 1 test in 0.001s

FAILED (errors=1)

import sys

class test_something(object):
    def setUp(self):
        sys.argv[1] = 'arg'
        del sys.argv[2] # remember that -s is in sys.argv[2], see below
    def test_method(self):
        print sys.argv

[~] nosetests test_something.py -s
['/usr/local/bin/nosetests', 'arg']
.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 1 test in 0.001s

OK

import os

print os.getenv('KEY_THAT_MIGHT_EXIST', default_value)

[group1]
env=qa

[urlConfig]
address=http://something

[dbConfig]
user=test
pass=test

from testconfig import config

print(config['dbConfig']['user'])

args = sys.argv[1:]
sys.argv = sys.argv[0:1]

from testconfig import config
def test_os_specific_code():
    os_name = config['os']['type']
    if os_name == 'nt':
        pass # some nt specific tests
    else:
        pass # tests for any other os