The current nose plugin does this:

If the module defines setup, the plugin calls it for every test function (like pytest's setup_function). But nose calls it once for the module (like pytest's setup_module).

Furthermore, it seems to assume func.parent will be a Module, but when inside a test class it will be an Instance, i.e. it will call the class's setup (and won't look at the module).

Finally, the "if there is no object level one" is incorrect -- the module-level setup should be called regardless of whether there is an object-level one.

The func.parent is causing some problems for a refactor I'm trying to perform, so I'll look into fixing this.