Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.16:test (default-test) on project mahout-math: There are test failures - maven

Question

Trying to install Mahout on Ubuntu16.04, I have successfully install maven 3.3.9 and subversion 1.9.3. New to mahout and maven, I don't know if I should skip the test and just use
mvn -DskipTests
Here is the error I got:
[INFO] Mahout Build Tools ................................. SUCCESS [ 6.621 s]
[INFO] Apache Mahout ...................................... SUCCESS [ 1.164 s]
[INFO] Mahout Math ........................................ FAILURE [03:35 min]
[INFO] Mahout MapReduce Legacy ............................ SKIPPED
[INFO] Mahout Integration ................................. SKIPPED
[INFO] Mahout Examples .................................... SKIPPED
[INFO] Mahout Release Package ............................. SKIPPED
[INFO] Mahout Math/Scala wrappers ......................... SKIPPED
[INFO] Mahout Spark bindings .............................. SKIPPED
[INFO] Mahout Spark bindings shell ........................ SKIPPED
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 03:44 min
[INFO] Finished at: 2016-10-07T19:05:02-07:00
[INFO] Final Memory: 33M/134M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-
surefire-plugin:2.16:test (default-test) on project mahout-math: There are test failures.
[ERROR]
[ERROR] Please refer to/home/flora/.linuxbrew/Cellar/mahout/trunk/math/target/surefire-reports
for the individual test results.
[ERROR] -> [Help 1]
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.16:test (default-test) on project mahout-math: There are test failures.
Please refer to /home/flora/.linuxbrew/Cellar/mahout/trunk/math/target/surefire-reports for the individual test results.
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:212)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:153)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:145)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:116)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:80)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.builder.singlethreaded.SingleThreadedBuilder.build(SingleThreadedBuilder.java:51)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleStarter.execute(LifecycleStarter.java:128)
at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:307)
at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:193)
at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:106)
at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.execute(MavenCli.java:863)
at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.doMain(MavenCli.java:288)
at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:199)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:289)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:229)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:415)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:356)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoFailureException: There are test failures.
Please refer to /home/flora/.linuxbrew/Cellar/mahout/trunk/math/target/surefire-reports for the individual test results.
at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.SurefireHelper.reportExecution(SurefireHelper.java:82)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.SurefirePlugin.handleSummary(SurefirePlugin.java:190)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.AbstractSurefireMojo.executeAfterPreconditionsChecked(AbstractSurefireMojo.java:852)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.AbstractSurefireMojo.execute(AbstractSurefireMojo.java:720)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultBuildPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultBuildPluginManager.java:134)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:207)
... 20 more
[ERROR]
[ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
[ERROR]
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MojoFailureException
[ERROR]
[ERROR] After correcting the problems, you can resume the build with the command
[ERROR] mvn <goals> -rf :mahout-math

Answer 1

I use Maven 3.3.9, but I can't just use "mvn -DskipTests", it will fail because of lacking lifecycle phase or a goal. Here is error message:
[ERROR] No goals have been specified for this build. You must specify a valid lifecycle phase or a goal in the format <plugin-prefix>:<goal> or <plugin-group-id>:<plugin-artifact-id>[:<plugin-version>]:<goal>. Available lifecycle phases are: validate, initialize, generate-sources, process-sources, generate-resources, process-resources, compile, process-classes, generate-test-sources, process-test-sources, generate-test-resources, process-test-resources, test-compile, process-test-classes, test, prepare-package, package, pre-integration-test, integration-test, post-integration-test, verify, install, deploy, pre-clean, clean, post-clean, pre-site, site, post-site, site-deploy. -> [Help 1]
There are two methods to ignore unit tests' failures. Use phase install for example:
method 1: mvn -DskipTests install
method 2: mvn -Dmaven.test.skip=true install
The difference between two methods is that the former will compile the unit tests and the latter won't, so the latter can skip compile failure, the former cannot.
Maven Surefire Plugin: Skipping Tests