How to run JUnit test cases from the command line

Question

I would like to run JUnit test cases from the command line. How can I do this?

similar ***android*** junit question: http://stackoverflow.com/q/11144466/611007 — n611x007, Aug 13 '14 at 10:05
android docs: [running tests on a device or emulator](http://developer.android.com/tools/testing/testing_otheride.html#RunTestsDevice) (from command line). ([via](http://stackoverflow.com/a/11180564/611007) andreea.sandu) — n611x007, Aug 13 '14 at 10:11

score 306 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 22 '22 at 10:09

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For JUnit 5.x it's:

java -jar junit-platform-console-standalone-<version>.jar <Options>

Find a brief summary at https://stackoverflow.com/a/52373592/1431016 and full details at https://junit.org/junit5/docs/current/user-guide/#running-tests-console-launcher

For JUnit 4.X it's really:

java -cp .:/usr/share/java/junit.jar org.junit.runner.JUnitCore [test class name]

But if you are using JUnit 3.X note the class name is different:

java -cp .:/usr/share/java/junit.jar junit.textui.TestRunner [test class name]

You might need to add more JARs or directories with your class files to the classpath and separate that with semicolons (Windows) or colons (UNIX/Linux). It depends on your environment.

Edit: I've added current directory as an example. Depends on your environment and how you build your application (can be bin/ or build/ or even my_application.jar etc). Note Java 6+ does support globs in classpath, you can do:

java -cp lib/*.jar:/usr/share/java/junit.jar ...

Write tests! :-)

edited Dec 22 '22 at 10:09

starball

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answered Aug 24 '11 at 08:37

lzap

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@Izap Any idea to programatically determine whether a test is using JUnit4 or JUnit3? – Goaler444 Nov 10 '13 at 11:33
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Class.forName I guess. It's been years I was programming in Java for the last time... – lzap Nov 11 '13 at 08:44
and what if you are using android? – n611x007 Aug 13 '14 at 10:04
Then try the first command, if it does not work the latter. Or read Android docs... dunno. – lzap Mar 04 '15 at 12:15
If the version of your JUnit jar is at least 4.0, then you should be able to use `org.junit.runner.JUnitCore` as your main class, that that will work whether your tests are written in JUnit3-style or JUnit4-style. – NamshubWriter Apr 18 '15 at 18:37
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Documentation for the "-cp" argument (i.e. the CLASSPATH) is [here (Java 7, Unix)](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/tools/solaris/classpath.html) and [here (Tutorial)](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/environment/paths.html) and [here (Java 8, Unix)](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/tools/unix/classpath.html) and [here (Java 8, Windows)](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/tools/windows/classpath.html). Apparently wildcards in the classpath are now supported. – David Tonhofer Aug 08 '15 at 16:54
That works well, however I'd like to give another argument to the test (the url it should go to) how can I do that? How can I get it inside the Java code? – Fla Apr 06 '17 at 07:49
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Downvote. For JUnit 4.x it's not right. Your instructions give "Could not find class: [test class name]" Even when [test class name] is in the classpath. – Philip Rego Dec 10 '18 at 19:09
this doesnt work for me - I get ClassNotFoundException for my test.java program. I am able to run it from the same command location using, java test.java but it fails when I add in the -cp classpath and junitcore commands (java11/macOs) – robbie70 Jun 05 '20 at 09:49
Since this is the first google result, for the sake of comprehensiveness, on UN*X systems the glob pattern is `java -cp lib/*` rather than `java -cp lib/*.jar` – wlnirvana Jan 17 '21 at 09:30

Yuci · Answer 2 · 2017-11-05T09:46:11.793

Maven way

If you use Maven, you can run the following command to run all your test cases:

mvn clean test

Or you can run a particular test as below

mvn clean test -Dtest=your.package.TestClassName
mvn clean test -Dtest=your.package.TestClassName#particularMethod

If you would like to see the stack trace (if any) in the console instead of report files in the target\surefire-reports folder, set the user property surefire.useFile to false. For example:

mvn clean test -Dtest=your.package.TestClassName -Dsurefire.useFile=false

Gradle way

If you use Gradle, you can run the following command to run all your test cases:

gradle test

Or you can run a particular test as below

gradle test --tests your.package.TestClassName
gradle test --tests your.package.TestClassName.particularMethod

If you would like more information, you can consider options such as --stacktrace, or --info, or --debug.

For example, when you run Gradle with the info logging level --info, it will show you the result of each test while they are running. If there is any exception, it will show you the stack trace, pointing out what the problem is.

gradle test --info

If you would like to see the overall test results, you can open the report in the browser, for example (Open it using Google Chrome in Ubuntu):

google-chrome build/reports/tests/index.html

Ant way

Once you set up your Ant build file build.xml, you can run your JUnit test cases from the command line as below:

ant -f build.xml <Your JUnit test target name>

You can follow the link below to read more about how to configure JUnit tests in the Ant build file: https://ant.apache.org/manual/Tasks/junit.html

Normal way

If you do not use Maven, or Gradle or Ant, you can follow the following way:

First of all, you need to compile your test cases. For example (in Linux):

javac -d /absolute/path/for/compiled/classes -cp /absolute/path/to/junit-4.12.jar /absolute/path/to/TestClassName.java

Then run your test cases. For example:

java -cp /absolute/path/for/compiled/classes:/absolute/path/to/junit-4.12.jar:/absolute/path/to/hamcrest-core-1.3.jar org.junit.runner.JUnitCore your.package.TestClassName

@capa_matrix before new build, maven shoud clean all stuff generated by the previous run. Such as classes, jars, auto-generated classes from wsdl-s (if in use) and so on. — Shtefan, Dec 08 '21 at 20:44

score 54 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 15 '12 at 08:02

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The answer that @lzap gave is a good solution. However, I would like to add that you should add . to the class path, so that your current directory is not left out, resulting in your own classes to be left out. This has happened to me on some platforms. So an updated version for JUnit 4.x would be:

java -cp .:/usr/share/java/junit.jar org.junit.runner.JUnitCore [test class name]

answered Aug 15 '12 at 08:02

rand_acs

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is that supposed to be a semi colon? – panny Feb 07 '13 at 01:30
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@panny it's a semicolon on Windows. On n *nix environment (at least OSX and all the Linux distros I've used) you use a colon. – rand_acs Feb 07 '13 at 07:44
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@rand_acs does the test class name need to be the fully classified class name ? – Goaler444 Nov 10 '13 at 12:08
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@Goaler444 Yes, I always use the full name, with all the namespaces specified. – rand_acs Nov 14 '13 at 07:09

score 24 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 10 '10 at 08:16

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Ensure that JUnit.jar is in your classpath, then invoke the command line runner from the console

java org.junit.runner.JUnitCore [test class name]

Reference: junit FAQ

answered Feb 10 '10 at 08:16

Gishu

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you also need to set up the rest of your project's classpath. – Thilo Feb 10 '10 at 08:20
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This just gives "Could not find class: [test class name]" even when [test class name] is in the classpath. – Philip Rego Dec 10 '18 at 19:10

score 20 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 13 '15 at 13:40

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With JUnit 4.12 the following didn't work for me:

java -cp .:/usr/share/java/junit.jar org.junit.runner.JUnitCore [test class name]

Apparently, from JUnit 4.11 onwards you should also include hamcrest-core.jar in your classpath:

java -cp .:/usr/share/java/junit.jar:/usr/share/java/hamcrest-core.jar org.junit.runner.JUnitCore [test class name]

answered Jun 13 '15 at 13:40

Stefan van den Akker

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Had the same issue with JUnit 4.12. Came up with a similar solution, but it didn't work for me, failing to load JUnitCore. I basically switched to JUnit 4.8.2 as it does not require to include hamcrest-core.jar in the classpath. – Vladimir Nazarenko Jul 30 '16 at 09:11
Confirmed that this must be done with JUnit 4.12. +1. – rayryeng Mar 16 '17 at 04:53
This worked for me: `java -cp .:/usr/share/java/junit4.jar org.junit.runner.JUnitCore [test class name]` – Raffi Khatchadourian May 16 '17 at 18:50

rogue lad · Answer 6 · 2014-06-04T05:31:53.860

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In windows it is

java -cp .;/path/junit.jar org.junit.runner.JUnitCore TestClass [test class name without .class extension]

for example: c:\>java -cp .;f:/libraries/junit-4.8.2 org.junit.runner.JUnitCore TestSample1 TestSample2 ... and so on, if one has more than one test classes.

-cp stands for class path and the dot (.) represents the existing classpath while semi colon (;) appends the additional given jar to the classpath , as in above example junit-4.8.2 is now available in classpath to execute JUnitCore class that here we have used to execute our test classes.

Above command line statement helps you to execute junit (version 4+) tests from command prompt(i-e MSDos).

Note: JUnitCore is a facade to execute junit tests, this facade is included in 4+ versions of junit.

edited Jun 04 '14 at 05:31

answered May 15 '14 at 07:27

rogue lad

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Please explain your answer in very brief. – Mohit Jain May 15 '14 at 07:50
I did not ask you to keep your answer brief. I requested to add some explanation (at least a brief explanation). It is a good practice to explain how your answer work. Readers may understand it, like it, upvote it. – Mohit Jain May 16 '14 at 16:22
so if I had a supplemental testing jar AND the vanilla junit jar, Id have to have both of those in java -cp command for anything to actually work? Is there a way around having to put all this into a command line so that I don't have to type as much stuff? – Ungeheuer Nov 01 '16 at 19:57

score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 01 '14 at 11:18

If your project is Maven-based you can run all test-methods from test-class CustomTest which belongs to module 'my-module' using next command:

mvn clean test -pl :my-module -Dtest=CustomTest

Or run only 1 test-method myMethod from test-class CustomTest using next command:

mvn clean test -pl :my-module -Dtest=CustomTest#myMethod

For this ability you need Maven Surefire Plugin v.2.7.3+ and Junit 4. More details is here: http://maven.apache.org/surefire/maven-surefire-plugin/examples/single-test.html

score 5 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 05 '13 at 13:16

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Actually you can also make the Junit test a runnable Jar and call the runnable jar as java -jar

answered Dec 05 '13 at 13:16

Indraneel

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In Eclipse , right click your JUnit project -> Click on Export --> Choose Java-> Runnable Jar File – Indraneel Dec 05 '14 at 05:37

djangofan · Answer 9 · 2016-12-08T16:50:44.610

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Personally I would use the Maven surefire JUnit runner to do that.

edited Dec 08 '16 at 16:50

answered Apr 15 '13 at 18:06

djangofan

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 17 '15 at 20:30

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Alternatively you can use the following methods in JunitCore class http://junit.sourceforge.net/javadoc/org/junit/runner/JUnitCore.html

run (with Request , Class classes and Runner) or runClasses from your java file.

answered Feb 17 '15 at 20:30

Raghu K Nair

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How to run JUnit test cases from the command line

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