Issue a Warning When Test Cases Use @pytest.fixture ， Help Beginners Differentiate Between Cases and Fixtures

When communicating with pytest beginners, it’s common to encounter code like this:

@pytest.fixture()
def test_login():
    driver = get_driver()
    page = pom.LoginPage(driver)
    page.login()
    return driver

def test_create_data(test_login):
    page = pom.HomePage(test_login)
    msg = page.send_data("./data.csv")
    assert 'ok' in msg

While the code meets functional requirements:

1. executes login first, then executes create_data.
2. Uses the same browser instance for all steps.

It also confuses them: Why are there 2 test cases, but only 1 appears in the terminal and reports?

This confusion arises because in most tutorials, blogs, and examples, test cases and fixtures share similarities:

• Both are functions.
• Both can use decorators.
• Both can return values ( pytest <=8.3.3).
• Both can use fixtures.

Currently, using @pytest.mark in fixtures raises a warning.
Should we also issue a warning when @pytest.fixture is used for test cases?

This could make it clearer that test cases and fixtures are fundamentally different, and their decorators are not interchangeable.

Start by tracing pytest’s existing warning for using @pytest.mark on fixtures. Determine how pytest distinguishes test cases from fixtures and define when applying @pytest.fixture to a test-like function should warn. Add focused coverage for the warning and for valid fixtures that must remain silent.