Paraphrasing from the pytest documentation referenced in the issue linked above:
Adding the __init__.py file to a test directory makes the tests part of a proper Python package, allowing pytest to resolve their full name. Preserving the full package name is important when tests live in a package to avoid problems and allow test modules to have duplicated names.
Resolves https://github.com/conda-incubator/conda-recipe-manager/issues/178
Paraphrasing from the
pytest
documentation referenced in the issue linked above: