Caused by: org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.SurefireBooterForkException: There was an error in the forked process [ERROR] Cannot instantiate class

Question

I am migrating my project to Java 15 version. We have done all the required changes and started building a maven clean install.

I am getting the below error. Tried many from google and Github other forums, nothing working.

TestNG version changes, and some plugin changes, but no luck.

Please find below the error. Can someone help...

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:3.0.0-M5:test (default-test) on project quarterback: There are test failures.
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] Please refer to surefire-reports for the individual test results.
[ERROR] Please refer to dump files (if any exist) [date].dump, [date]-jvmRun[N].dump and [date].dumpstream.
[ERROR] ExecutionException There was an error in the forked process
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] Cannot instantiate class com....ABCTest
[ERROR] ExecutionException There was an error in the forked process
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] Cannot instantiate class com...DEFTest
[ERROR] ExecutionException There was an error in the forked process
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] Cannot instantiate class com...GHITest
[ERROR] org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.SurefireBooterForkException: ExecutionException There was an error in the forked process
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] Cannot instantiate class com...JKLTest
[ERROR] ExecutionException There was an error in the forked process
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] Cannot instantiate class com...MNOTest
[ERROR] ExecutionException There was an error in the forked process
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] Cannot instantiate class com...ABCTest
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter.awaitResultsDone(ForkStarter.java:532)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter.runSuitesForkOnceMultiple(ForkStarter.java:405)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter.run(ForkStarter.java:321)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter.run(ForkStarter.java:266)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.AbstractSurefireMojo.executeProvider(AbstractSurefireMojo.java:1314)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.AbstractSurefireMojo.executeAfterPreconditionsChecked(AbstractSurefireMojo.java:1159)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.AbstractSurefireMojo.execute(AbstractSurefireMojo.java:932)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultBuildPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultBuildPluginManager.java:137)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:210)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:156)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:148)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:117)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:81)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.builder.singlethreaded.SingleThreadedBuilder.build(SingleThreadedBuilder.java:56)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleStarter.execute(LifecycleStarter.java:128)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:305)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:192)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:105)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.execute(MavenCli.java:956)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.doMain(MavenCli.java:288)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:192)
[ERROR]     at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
[ERROR]     at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:64)
[ERROR]     at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
[ERROR]     at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:564)
[ERROR]     at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:282)
[ERROR]     at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:225)
[ERROR]     at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:406)
[ERROR]     at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:347)
[ERROR] Caused by: org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.SurefireBooterForkException: There was an error in the forked process
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] Cannot instantiate class com....DEFTest
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter.fork(ForkStarter.java:733)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter.access$700(ForkStarter.java:121)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter$1.call(ForkStarter.java:393)
[ERROR]     at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter$1.call(ForkStarter.java:370)
[ERROR]     at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
[ERROR]     at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1130)
[ERROR]     at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:630)
[ERROR]     at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:832)

Answer 1

I had a very similar problem with surefire and testng and it turned out that there was an error in the constructor of the test class that had been swallowed. My solution was to surround the whole costuctor code with try/catch and log the exception manually to find the real issue.

Answer 2

The thing that you see the stacktrace does not necessarily mean an error in the plugin.

I think the log with Cannot instantiate class com...ABCTest is printed by your framework, TestNG. Is the TestNG reliable in JDK 15? You can see more in the dump files with detailed errors located in target/surefire-reports.

I found similar issue in https://sqa.stackexchange.com/questions/14680/cannot-instantiate-class-error-selenium-webdriver and the root cause looks like they called the driver

driver.findElement(...)

in the constructor of the test class.