Maven skip tests

maven

I am using Maven 2.2.1 and to build my project I used this command

mvn clean install -Dmaven.test.skip=true

However, the build failed saying it couldn't find one of the artifact. However, when I used:

mvn clean install -DskipTests

everything worked fine.

So far I have been thinking that these 2 commands are equivalent. However, this link seems to suggest that -Dmaven.test.skip=true also skips compiling the test cases.

However, that still didn't explain to me why one command is working and another is not. Will be thankful if anyone please explain this to me.

Best Answer

As you noted, -Dmaven.test.skip=true skips compiling the tests. More to the point, it skips building the test artifacts. A common practice for large projects is to have testing utilities and base classes shared among modules in the same project.

This is accomplished by having a module require a test-jar of a previously built module:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.myproject.mygroup</groupId>
  <artifactId>common</artifactId>
  <version>1.0</version>
  <type>test-jar</type>
  <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

If -Dmaven.test.skip=true (or simply -Dmaven.test.skip) is specified, the test-jars aren't built, and any module that relies on them will fail its build.

In contrast, when you use -DskipTests, Maven does not run the tests, but it does compile them and build the test-jar, making it available for the subsequent modules.

Related Solutions

Maven – How to force maven update

mvn clean install -U

-U means force update of snapshot dependencies.

Release dependencies will be updated this way if they have never been previously successfully downloaded. ref: https://stackoverflow.com/a/29020990/32453

Java – How to add local jar files to a Maven project

You can add local dependencies directly (as mentioned in build maven project with propriatery libraries included) like this:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.sample</groupId>
    <artifactId>sample</artifactId>
    <version>1.0</version>
    <scope>system</scope>
    <systemPath>${project.basedir}/src/main/resources/Name_Your_JAR.jar</systemPath>
</dependency>

Update

In new releases this feature is marked as deprecated but still working and not removed yet ( You just see warning in the log during maven start). An issue is raised at maven group about this https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MNG-6523 ( You can participate and describe why this feature is helpful in some cases). I hope this feature remains there!

If you are asking me, as long as the feature is not removed, I use this to make dependency to only one naughty jar file in my project which is not fit in repository. If this feature is removed, well, there are lots of good answers here which I can chose from later!

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Maven – How to force maven update

Java – How to add local jar files to a Maven project

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