Maven2 Surefire test plugin

maven surefire plugin tips - skipping, debugging, and choosing tests to run.

Published: Monday, 14 February 2011

Usages

This plugin is used when you run mvn test.

There are special command line parameters you can use:

Skipping tests

You should be running a full suite of tests each time, but on occasions where you want to skip it, add -DskipTests system property to the command line

Running a single test

Use the test system property. e.g. add -Dtest=MySingleTest. This is helpful when you want to test a single test instead of all tests.

Running a test in debug mode

Use the maven.surefire.debug system property to tell mvn to wait for a debugger to remotely attach to your test JVM.

e.g. To debug a single test, your command might look something like:

mvn -Dmaven.surefire.debug="-Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=y,address=5008" -Dtest=HardToDiagnoseTest test

Maven will pause until you connect your debugger to the maven JVM. I’ve used this when tests are failing in maven but pass in the IDE.