Maven Surefire: Running tests in specified dependencies

Question

I have a project that includes multiple other jar artifacts as dependencies. I'm using the surefire plugin's dependenciesToScan property to run tests in the said artifacts as follows:

<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>2.18.1</version>
      <configuration>
        <dependenciesToScan>
          <dependency>com.example.tests:project-a</dependency>
          <dependency>com.example.tests:project-b</dependency>
        </dependenciesToScan>
      </configuration>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.example.tests</groupId>
    <artifactId>project-a</artifactId>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.example.tests</groupId>
    <artifactId>project-b</artifactId>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>

Ideally, I would like to be able to do the following:

• mvn test would run the tests in each dependency like normal
• Another parameter would run only the tests for whichever artifact is specified and skip the tests for whatever dependency was not included

Is this possible at all or is there another way to approach this?

Answer 1

You can use profiles to have two distinct builds.

<profiles>
  <profile>
    <id>project-a</id>
    <build>
      <plugins>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.18.1</version>
          <configuration>
            <dependenciesToScan>
              <dependency>com.example.tests:project-a</dependency>
            </dependenciesToScan>
          </configuration>
        </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
  </profile>
  <profile>
    <id>project-b</id>
    <build>
      <plugins>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.18.1</version>
          <configuration>
            <dependenciesToScan>
              <dependency>com.example.tests:project-b</dependency>
            </dependenciesToScan>
          </configuration>
        </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
  </profile>
</profiles>

The use mvn clean test -P project-a or mvn clean test -P project-b You could also set different properties in each profiles and have a centralized surefire config.

---

Or you could use a property:

<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>2.18.1</version>
      <configuration>
        <dependenciesToScan>
          <dependency>${someProperty}</dependency>
        </dependenciesToScan>
      </configuration>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

The use mvn clean test -DsomeProperty=project-a