Running a Single Unit Test with Maven

I often find myself needing to run a single unit test for a particular project from the command line in my terminal window, rather than all of the tests. In this blog post, I’ll show you how to do just that: run a specific unit test using Maven from the command line.

For video tutorials on how to do Unit testing and Integration testing of Java applications, please have a look at my video course “Testing Java code with JUnit and Mockito“.

Let’s say I have a Test class with the name UsersServiceImplTest.

Run All Test Methods

It is very easy to run all test methods in a project with mvn test command. There is no more you need to do.

1. Open a terminal window,
2. Change directory to your Spring Boot project,
3. Run the mvn test command.

Like so:

mvn test

Run All Tests in a Class

To run all tests in a single test class, do these two steps:

1. Open a terminal window and change the directory to your Maven project. You should be in a directory that contains pom.xml file,
2. Run the below command:

   mvn -Dtest=UsersServiceImplTest test

   where the UsersServiceImplTest is a Test class with test methods.

Run a Single Unit Test

To run a single unit test, do the following:

1. Open a terminal window and change directory to your Maven project. You should be in a directory that contains pom.xml file,
2. Run the below command:

   mvn -Dtest=UsersServiceImpl#testCreateUser test

   where the UsersServiceImplTest is a test class and the testCreateUser is a name of a method you are testing.

Run Tests that Match a Pattern

If you want to run only specific tests in your test class that match a certain pattern, you can do so by using a command like the one below. In this example, the command will run all the tests in the test class that begin with the string ‘testCreate’.

mvn -Dtest=UsersServiceImpl#testCreate* test

POM.xml Dependencies

If you want to run unit tests for your project using the Maven command, you’ll need to add the following dependencies to the <build> section of your project’s pom.xml file.

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.22.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.22.2</version>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

I hope this very short maven tutorial on running a single unit test was of some value to you. If you would like to learn Maven by watching a step by step video lessons, please check the below links.

Delve into the world of unit testing with our extensive tutorials available on the Testing Java Code page. Explore the best practices for structuring your test methods and gain the expertise needed to write reliable and maintainable test suites.