diff --git a/‎README.rst‎
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Lines changed: 15 additions & 0 deletions
diff --git a/‎tests/functional/conftest.py‎
Lines changed: 23 additions & 0 deletions b/‎tests/functional/conftest.py‎
Lines changed: 23 additions & 0 deletions
diff --git a/‎tests/functional/fixtures/set_token.rb‎
Lines changed: 1 addition & 1 deletion b/‎tests/functional/fixtures/set_token.rb‎
Lines changed: 1 addition & 1 deletion
@@ -186,6 +186,21 @@ To run these tests:
    # run the python API tests:
    tox -e py_func_v4
 
+When developing tests it can be a little frustrating to wait for GitLab to spin
+up every run. To prevent the containers from being cleaned up afterwards, pass
+`--keep-containers` to pytest, i.e.:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   tox -e py_func_v4 -- --keep-containers
+
+If you then wish to test against a clean slate, you may perform a manual clean
+up of the containers by running:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   docker-compose -f tests/functional/fixtures/docker-compose.yml -p pytest-python-gitlab down -v
+
 By default, the tests run against the latest version of the ``gitlab/gitlab-ce``
 image. You can override both the image and tag by providing either the
 ``GITLAB_IMAGE`` or ``GITLAB_TAG`` environment variables.
 
@@ -50,6 +50,14 @@ def pytest_report_collectionfinish(config, startdir, items):
     ]
 
 
+def pytest_addoption(parser):
+    parser.addoption(
+        "--keep-containers",
+        action="store_true",
+        help="Keep containers running after testing",
+    )
+
+
 @pytest.fixture(scope="session")
 def temp_dir():
     return Path(tempfile.gettempdir())
@@ -65,6 +73,21 @@ def docker_compose_file(test_dir):
     return test_dir / "fixtures" / "docker-compose.yml"
 
 
+@pytest.fixture(scope="session")
+def docker_compose_project_name():
+    """Set a consistent project name to enable optional reuse of containers."""
+    return "pytest-python-gitlab"
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(scope="session")
+def docker_cleanup(request):
+    """Conditionally keep containers around by overriding the cleanup command."""
+    if request.config.getoption("--keep-containers"):
+        # Print version and exit.
+        return "-v"
+    return "down -v"
+
+
 @pytest.fixture(scope="session")
 def check_is_alive():
     """
 
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 user = User.find_by_username('root')
 
-token = user.personal_access_tokens.create(scopes: [:api, :sudo], name: 'default');
+token = user.personal_access_tokens.first_or_create(scopes: [:api, :sudo], name: 'default');
 token.set_token('python-gitlab-token');
 token.save!