--- a/cubicweb/devtools/testlib.py	Wed Sep 28 22:17:36 2016 +0200
+++ b/cubicweb/devtools/testlib.py	Wed Oct 26 08:34:34 2016 +0200
@@ -57,7 +57,11 @@
     from unittest2 import TestCase
     if not hasattr(TestCase, 'subTest'):
         raise ImportError('no subTest support in available unittest2')
-    from backports.tempfile import TemporaryDirectory  # noqa
+    try:
+        from backports.tempfile import TemporaryDirectory  # noqa
+    except ImportError:
+        # backports.tempfile not available
+        TemporaryDirectory = None
 else:
     from unittest import TestCase
     from tempfile import TemporaryDirectory  # noqa