How to set up an environment variable in mvn pom?

Question

How can i set up an environment variable (in other words internally accessible by System.getenv("APP_HOME") in a pom file?

APP_HOME=/path/home

I realize i can set it up in .profile, but wonder if pom can do the same trick.

Per bmargulies's suggestion below, i tried the following, without luck

<build>
    <finalName>KvpStore</finalName>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.2</version>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.6</source>
                <target>1.6</target>
                <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.12.4</version>
            <configuration>
                <includes>
                    <include>**/*Test*.java</include>
                </includes>
                <environmentVariables>
                    <APP_NAME>blah_blah</APP_NAME>  <------------------------
                </environmentVariables>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

score 56 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 07 '14 at 07:52

56

Some plugins, like surefire, let you set them. There's no way, in general, in the pom.

The doc for surefire is is here. Surefire will set environment variables for the duration of the run of the tests, not for anything else. And you have to make surefire fork.

In the configuration ...

<configuration>
  <forkMode>always</forkMode>
  <environmentVariables>
     <var1>val1</var1>
  </environmentVariables>
</configuration>

edited Aug 07 '14 at 07:52

Stephan202

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answered Dec 25 '12 at 02:11

bmargulies

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Hmm .. does not seem to work. I assume is the name of the key? – James Raitsev Dec 25 '12 at 02:39
1

Use mvn -X to check what's happening. – bmargulies Dec 25 '12 at 13:33
Have you restarted the cmd.exe before trying this ? Are you calling from command line or from Eclipse ? – khmarbaise Dec 25 '12 at 13:48
1

This won't side-effect the command-line or anywhere else. It will only effect the tests. – bmargulies Dec 25 '12 at 13:49
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if forkmode is disabled, you can use systemPropertyVariables instead to make it work. but make sure to read it via getProperty and not getEnv – mrida May 14 '15 at 07:47
2

Then it's not an env variable any more, but merely a Java system property. – bmargulies May 14 '15 at 10:35
1

Using works for me when using System.getenv(). This is the correct answer. – timh Aug 04 '15 at 08:48
How to refer a POM property value in ``? I'm trying to refer to one, but its setting `${env}` as value of environment variable. – Appu Mistri Jun 18 '19 at 16:24

khmarbaise · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-25T13:59:41.017

-9

The documentation of the maven-surefire-plugin show examples and describes how to do such things of setting up system properties.

<configuration>
  <systemPropertyVariables>
    <propertyName>propertyValue</propertyName>
    <buildDirectory>${project.build.directory}</buildDirectory>
    [...]
  </systemPropertyVariables>
</configuration>

It might be better to use them instead of environment variable, cause it's simpler to use them, cause env variable needed to setup correctly and the cmd.exe and the jvm must be restarted to get them working.

It is not necessary to configure the includes for the tests, cause maven-surefire-plugin has already the following defaults:

<includes>
 <include>**/Test*.java</include>
 <include>**/*Test.java</include>
 <include>**/*TestCase.java</include>
</includes>

edited Dec 25 '12 at 13:59

answered Dec 25 '12 at 09:30

khmarbaise

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The OP asked for env vars, not Java system properties. – bmargulies Dec 25 '12 at 13:32
I know but env variables make more problems than system properties. – khmarbaise Dec 25 '12 at 13:46
4

I guess that he or she is launching processes that really read env vars. – bmargulies Dec 25 '12 at 13:47
1

cause != because – Alex Worden Mar 06 '18 at 22:54

How to set up an environment variable in mvn pom?

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