how to fix the maven surefire plugin error [there was error in the forked process]? - maven

Question

I am trying to run my sample project which uses Maven- testNG-cucumber and deploy it using docker . here is my Dockerfile
FROM maven:3.6.0-jdk-8
RUN mkdir /docker
WORKDIR /docker
COPY pom.xml .
COPY testng.xml .
COPY src .
RUN mvn clean verify
POM.XML
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>info.cukes</groupId>
<artifactId>cucumber-java</artifactId>
<version>1.2.5</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>info.cukes</groupId>
<artifactId>cucumber-jvm-deps</artifactId>
<version>1.0.5</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>info.cukes</groupId>
<artifactId>cucumber-testng</artifactId>
<version>1.2.5</version>
<scope>compile</scope>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.testng</groupId>
<artifactId>testng</artifactId>
<version>6.9.8</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>net.masterthought</groupId>
<artifactId>cucumber-reporting</artifactId>
<version>3.8.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
<artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>
<version>2.44.0</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.4</version>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.20.1</version>
<configuration>
<suiteXmlFiles>
<suiteXmlFile>testng.xml</suiteXmlFile>
</suiteXmlFiles>
<useSystemClassLoader>false</useSystemClassLoader>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>net.masterthought</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-cucumber-reporting</artifactId>
<version>3.8.0</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>execution</id>
<phase>verify</phase>
<goals>
<goal>generate</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<projectName>Sample</projectName>
<outputDirectory>target/cucumber-reports/advanced-reports</outputDirectory>
<cucumberOutput>target/cucumber-reports/CucumberTestReport.json</cucumberOutput>
<buildNumber>1</buildNumber>
<parallelTesting>false</parallelTesting>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
above scenario works completely fine when i run the project locally using mvn verify .Then i try to build the image using docker build -t sample . . this time i have got the following error .
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.20.1:test (default-test) on project Sample: There are test failures.
[ERROR] Please refer to /docker/target/surefire-reports for the individual test results.
[ERROR] Please refer to dump files (if any exist) [date]-jvmRun[N].dump, [date].dumpstream and [date]-jvmRun[N].dumpstream.
[ERROR] There was an error in the forked process
[ERROR] Cannot find class in classpath: TestRunner
[ERROR] org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.SurefireBooterForkException: There was an error in the forked process
[ERROR] Cannot find class in classpath: TestRunner
[ERROR] at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter.fork
(ForkStarter.java:673)
[ERROR] at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter.fork
(ForkStarter.java:535)
[ERROR] at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter.run
(ForkStarter.java:280)
[ERROR] at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.ForkStarter.run
(ForkStarter.java:245)
[ERROR] at
org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.AbstractSurefireMojo.executeProvider
(AbstractSurefireMojo.java:1124)
[ERROR] at
org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.AbstractSurefireMojo.
executeAfterPreconditionsChecked(AbstractSurefireMojo.java:954)
Any help would be much appreciated

Answer 1

I had a similar issue and after using older version of maven-surefire-plugin solved my issue.
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<!-- latest version does not work well with JUnit5 -->
<version>2.19.1</version>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.junit.platform</groupId>
<artifactId>junit-platform-surefire-provider</artifactId>
<version>1.0.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
<artifactId>junit-jupiter-engine</artifactId>
<version>5.0.3</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</plugin>

Answer 2

I had the same issue, I just used the clean command for maven.
clean -f pom.xml
If you are working in IntelliJ you can use maven plugin instead.
On the right side click maven Tab -> plugins -> clean -> clean:clean

Answer 3

I faced the same issue but it got resolved with different solution, you can check below problems as well.
Actually i have given the wrong testNG.xml path in POM.XML that's why it was throwing me that error. Please cross verify your testNG.xml path.

Answer 4

The above exception log clearly states that it is unable to find the TestRunner class. Make sure your TestRunner class is on the classpath.
I was getting a similar exception due to there were few extra characters added in the Classes section of the TestNG XML file. Its worth checking TestNG XML file is correct and doesn't contain any extra chars than needed structure.

Answer 5

I faced the same issue. It got resolved after the maven clean build and then ran the test.