diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 782768ddf6e50a7cbe580e216d53918562975b8b..f295e0b9480d56359ec1f1d30bc3be5bd54aea57 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ unittest_py3.9:
     - python3 -c "import sys; assert sys.version.startswith('$PYVER')"
     # actual test
     - caosdb-crawler --help
-    - pytest --cov=caosdb -vv ./unittests
+    - make unittest
 
 unittest_py3.10:
   variables:
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 1ba97ae3c966a0b2452a05f103d0664daf6991f9..d9b1354dff2174d286ce829ce7bf699f4d125304 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -44,5 +44,5 @@ lint:
 .PHONY: lint
 
 unittest:
-	pytest
+	pytest --cov=caosdb -vv ./unittests
 .PHONY: unittest