How to enable assert in CQ5/ OSGi Bundle (Java)?

Question

We enable asserts in a core java application by doing java -ea xxx, I also know how to enable assertions in eclipse by changing the commandline options.

But how to enable assert in an OSGi bundle. I have a bundle that I want to test with assertions enabled and I want to disable them at the time of deployment(Disabling would be easy as assert is disabled by default). But how to enable it ?

Answer 1

You may use the ClassLoader#setDefaultAssertionStatus(Boolean) method. It sets the assertion status only for classes that hasn't been loaded yet. Therefore, the best place to put this statement would be a bundle activator:

public class Activator implements BundleActivator {

    @Override
    public void start(BundleContext bundleContext) throws Exception {
        getClass().getClassLoader().setDefaultAssertionStatus(true);
    }

    @Override
    public void stop(BundleContext context) throws Exception {
    }
}

Remember to register the activator in the maven-bundle-plugin configuration:

<project>
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.felix</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-bundle-plugin</artifactId>
        <configuration>
          <instructions>
            <Bundle-Activator>my.project.Activator</Bundle-Activator>
...