Mutiple maven plugin executions with different system property values

Question

I am trying to execute the plugin below more than once with a different value of a system property called testVar. I have the following plugin in my pom.xml:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.14.1</version>
    <configuration>
        <skip>false</skip>
        <forkCount>1</forkCount>
        <threadCount>3</threadCount>
    </configuration>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>before-run</id>
            <goals>
                <goal>test</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <systemPropertyVariables>
                    <testVar>aaa</testVar>
                </systemPropertyVariables>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
        <execution>
            <id>main-run</id>
            <goals>
                <goal>test</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <systemPropertyVariables>
                    <testVar>bbb</testVar>
                </systemPropertyVariables>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

I am getting null when running System.getProperty("testVar"). However, I can access the testVar properly when it is declared at the plugin-level. What's wrong?

Answer 1

You have several execution tags in the configuration of the maven-surefire-plugin, i.e. the goal test is executed several times in the default phase test. Actually, your plugin configuration leads to 3 test exections:

1. default-test (triggered automatically by surefire, no custom system property set)
2. before-run (as defined first in your POM, system property set)
3. main-run (as defined second in your POM, system property set)

mvn test with Maven 3.5.4:

-------------------------------------------------------
 T E S T S
-------------------------------------------------------
Running com.example.app.ExampleTest
getProperty:null
Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.078 sec

Results :

Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0

[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-surefire-plugin:2.14.1:test (before-run) @ app ---
[INFO] ...

-------------------------------------------------------
 T E S T S
-------------------------------------------------------
Running com.example.app.ExampleTest
getProperty:aaa
Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.078 sec

Results :

Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0

[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-surefire-plugin:2.14.1:test (main-run) @ app ---
[INFO] ...

-------------------------------------------------------
 T E S T S
-------------------------------------------------------
Running com.example.app.ExampleTest
getProperty:bbb
Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.078 sec

Results :

Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0

[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Consider overriding the default-test execution in order to apply your configuration properly. Example:

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.14.1</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>before-run</id>
                    ...
                </execution>
                <execution>
                    <id>default-test</id>
                    ...
                </execution>
            </executions>