How to permanently exclude one test class in a Maven build

Question

I'm trying to exclude a single test from my maven build (I don't want the test to be compiled or executed). The following doesn't work:

<project ...>
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
        <configuration>
          <excludes>
            <exclude>**/MyTest.java</exclude>
          </excludes>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

What is the correct way to achieve my goal? I know that I can use the command-line option -Dmaven.test.skip=true, but I would like this to be part of the pom.xml.

Answer 1

Skip the test

From the docs, if you want to skip a test, you can use:

<project>
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.17</version>
        <configuration>
          <excludes>
            <exclude>**/MyTest.java</exclude>
          </excludes>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

See the diference, in your example, you use <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>, and the docs say that you shoul use <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId> plugin instead.

And, if you want to disable all test, you can use:

    <configuration>
      <skipTests>true</skipTests>
    </configuration>

Also, if you are using JUnit, you can use @Ignore, and add a message.

Exclude the test from compilation

From this answer, you can use. The trick is intercept the <id>default-testCompile</id> <phase>test-compile</phase> (default test compile phase) and exclude the class:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <id>default-testCompile</id>
      <phase>test-compile</phase>
      <configuration>
        <testExcludes>
          <exclude>**/MyTest.java</exclude>
        </testExcludes>
      </configuration> 
      <goals>
        <goal>testCompile</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>                  
  </executions>
</plugin>