Cannot use jacoco JVM args and surefire JVM args together in maven - maven

Question

I am using maven with the jacoco plugin to generate code coverage metrics. I am having some difficulty in configuring the surefire plugin with the java options required by the jacoco plugin. I've seen some answers about this already on Stack Overflow but something is not working for me.
I have a multi-module project, and one of my modules configures the surefire plugin as follows:
foo/pom.xml:
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<argLine>-XX:MaxPermSize=512m</argLine>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
This works as expected.
Now I want to incorporate jacoco to get code coverage metrics, so I added a CodeCoverage profile that handles all the jacoco configuration:
parent/pom.xml:
<profile>
<id>CodeCoverage</id>
<build>
<pluginManagement>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.jacoco</groupId>
<artifactId>jacoco-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>jacoco-initialize</id>
<goals><goal>prepare-agent</goal></goals>
<configuration>
<propertyName>surefire.argLine</propertyName>
</configuration>
...
</execution>
<executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</pluginManagement>
</build>
</profile>
It is seen here that if the CodeCoverage profile is specified, then the jacoco plugin is configured to use the surefire.argLine property, and that property is used to configure the argLine for the surefire plugin.
I then updated the pom.xml file for the foo module to use the surefire.argLine property generated by the jacoco plugin:
foo/pom.xml:
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<argLine>${surefire.argLine} -XX:MaxPermSize=512m</argLine>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
This approach is specified in the jacoco plugin documentation (see [1]).
When I build the foo module with the CodeCoverage profile, I see the following:
[foo] $ mvn clean install -X -PCodeCoverage
...
[INFO] --- jacoco-maven-plugin:0.7.0.201403182114:prepare-agent (jacoco-initialize) # foo ---
[INFO] surefire.argLine set to -javaagent:...\\org.jacoco.agent\\0.7.0.201403182114\\org.jacoco.agent-0.7.0.201403182114-runtime.jar=destfile=...\foo\\\target\\coverage-reports\\jacoco-ut.exec
...
[DEBUG] Configuring mojo 'org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.13:test' with basic configurator -->
[DEBUG] (s) argLine = -javaagent:...\\org.jacoco.agent\\0.7.0.201403182114\\org.jacoco.agent-0.7.0.201403182114-runtime.jar=destfile=...\\foo\\target\\coverage-reports\\jacoco-ut.exec -XX:MaxPermSize=512m
...
[INFO] --- jacoco-maven-plugin:0.7.0.201403182114:report (jacoco-site) # foo ---
[INFO] Analyzed bundle 'Foo' with 59 classes`
So the jacoco plugin is executed, a surefire.argLine property is created, the argLine for the surefire plugin uses the surefire.argLine property and the local MaxPermSize argument, and a target\code-coverage\jacoc-ut-exec file is generated, as expected.
However, if I do not use the CodeCoverage profile, then I get an error, because the ${surefire.argLine} property (used in foo/pom.xml) is not created by the jacoco plugin, and is not defined anywhere:
[foo] $ mvn clean install -X
...
[DEBUG] Configuring mojo 'org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.13:test' with basic configurator -->
[DEBUG] (s) argLine = ${surefire.argLine} -XX:MaxPermSize=512m
...
Error: Could not find or load main class ${surefire.argLine}`
Sinec the jacoco plugin was not invoked, there's no surefire.argLine property created, hence the error.
So, I go back to the parent/pom.xml and create this property, with no initial value:
parent/pom.xml:
<properties>
<surefire.argLine></surefire.argLine>
</properties>
Now when I build the foo module without using the CodeCoverage profile, I get no errors:
[foo] $ mvn clean install -X
...
[DEBUG] Configuring mojo 'org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.13:test' with basic configurator -->
[DEBUG] (s) argLine = -XX:MaxPermSize=512m
...
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS`
The surefire argline is now correct (using the empty surefire.argLine property) and there is no target\code-coverage directory, as expected.
So now I go back to generating code metrics, using the CodeCoverage profile:
[foo] $ mvn clean install -X -PCodeCoverage
...
[INFO] --- jacoco-maven-plugin:0.7.0.201403182114:prepare-agent (jacoco-initialize) # foo ---
[INFO] surefire.argLine set to -javaagent:...\\org.jacoco.agent\\0.7.0.201403182114\\org.jacoco.agent-0.7.0.201403182114-runtime.jar=destfile=...\\foo\\target\\coverage-reports\\jacoco-ut.exec
...
[DEBUG] Configuring mojo 'org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.13:test' with basic configurator -->
[DEBUG] (s) argLine = -XX:MaxPermSize=512m
...
[INFO] --- jacoco-maven-plugin:0.7.0.201403182114:report (jacoco-site) # foo ---
[INFO] Skipping JaCoCo execution due to missing execution data file:...\foo\target\coverage-reports\jacoco-ut.exec
It can be observed here that the jacoco plugin is invoked and sets the surefire.argLine property, but the surefire.argLine property with the empty value defined in the parent/pom.xml file is actually used to create the argline for the surefire plugin.
As a result, there is no jacoco-ut.exec file, and no target\code-coverage directory, when I use the CodeCoverage profile.
I'm not sure what I am doing wrong here. I'm declaring an argLine property as suggested by the jacoco documentation, and using it whenever a surefire plugin needs to specify additional argument. Other answers on Stack Overflow suggest creating a property with the same name as the jacoco argLine property to handle the case when jacoco is not invoked.
Any suggestions?
edit
Maybe one solution is to explicitly declare the surefire.argLine property in the CodeCoverage profile, and forget about using the argLine of the jacoco plugin:
<profile>
<id>CodeCoverage</id>
<properties>
<surefire.argLine>-javaagent:${jacoco.agent.jar}=destfile=${jacoco.report.path}</surefire.argLine>
</properties>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.jacoco</groupId>
<artifactId>jacoco-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>jacoco-initialize</id>
<goals>
<goal>prepare-agent</goal>
</goals>
<!-- no longer specifying 'argLine' for jacoco plugin ... -->
</execution>
<executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<!-- ... instead the arg line is configured explicitly for surefire plugin. -->
<argLine>${surefire.argLine}</argLine>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</plugin>
</build>
This will create the surefire.argLine property to use the java agent required by the jacoco plugin, and configure the surefire plugin to use that property for its JVM args. The jacoco plugin will now create a argLine property, but this will be ignored. It's not an elegant solution (since I'm making assumptions about how the jacoco plugin works, and this may change in a future version).
edit
The jacoco.agent.jar property must also be set, by pointing to its location in the local repository (not sure if this is robust) or by using the dependency plugin to copy the jacoco agent jar to the local build directory:
<profile>
<id>CodeCoverage</id>
<properties>
<jacoco.agent.jar>${project.build.directory}/jacoco-agent.jar</jacoco.agent.jar>
...
</project>
<build>
...
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>download-jacoco-agent</id>
<phase>process-test-resources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>copy</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<artifactItems>
<artifactItem>
<groupId>org.jacoco</groupId>
<artifactId>org.jacoco.agent</artifactId>
<version>${jacoco.version}</version>
<classifier>runtime</classifier>
<outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}</outputDirectory>
<destFileName>jacoco-agent.jar</destFileName>
</artifactItem>
</artifactItems>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>
edit
Not sure if using the dependency plugin is the right approach, or pointing to the jacoco agent artifact in the local repository:
<profile>
<id>CodeCoverage</id>
<properties>
<jacoco.agent.jar>${settings.localRepository}/org/jacoco/org.jacoco.agent/${jacoco.version}/org.jacoco.agent-${jacoco.version}-runtime.jar</jacoco.agent.jar>
</properties>
...
</profile>
This is simpler, and does not require copying an artifact to the local build directory, but is fragile: changes in the repository layout will break this.
[1] http://www.eclemma.org/jacoco/trunk/doc/prepare-agent-mojo.html

Answer 1

Try using
#{argLine}
instead of
${argLine}
(or surefire.argLine in your case)
It allows surefire to read a property as modified by other plugins instead of reading the one substituted by Maven itself. Then you can set the argLine param to empty in Maven properties:
<properties>
<argLine></argLine>
</properties>
Which now will not cause any problems. More here: How do I use properties set by other plugins in argLine?

Answer 2

Since the jacoco-maven-plugin:prepare-agent goal executes before the maven-surefire-plugin, try adding the ${argLine} variable into the argLine value set by the maven-surefire-plugin.
Example:
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.12.1</version>
<configuration>
<argLine>-server -ea -XX:MaxPermSize=256m -Xmx4g -XX:-UseSplitVerifier ${argLine}</argLine>
</configuration>
</plugin>
I had the same problem and this solution worked for me, without any need to reconfigure other sections of the POM.

Answer 3

If your project already uses the argLine to configure the surefire-maven-plugin, be sure that argLine defined as a property, rather than as part of the plugin configuration. For example:
<properties>
<argLine>-your -extra -arguments</argLine>
</properties>
...
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<!-- Do not define argLine here! -->
</configuration>
</plugin>
Resulting coverage information is collected during execution and by default written to a file when the process terminates.
Worked for me. See: http://www.eclemma.org/jacoco/trunk/doc/prepare-agent-mojo.html

Answer 4

Try adding the argLine property in the properties section (as shown in the code below) instead of adding it in the configuration section of maven-sure-fire plugin. Jacoco maven plugin will just append to this and things will work as expected.
<properties>
<argLine>-XX:MaxPermSize=512m</argLine>
</properties>
See https://docs.sonarqube.org/display/PLUG/Usage+of+JaCoCo+with+Java+Plugin

Answer 5

My solution is to use multiple profiles.
The first profile sets a blank value for the surefire.argLine and the failsafe.argLine and is active by default.
<profile>
<id>not-sonar</id>
<properties>
<surefire.argLine/>
<failsafe.argLine/>
</properties>
<activation>
<activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
</activation>
</profile>
The second profile has the jacoco plugin configuration and is inactive by default.
<profile>
<id>sonar</id>
<activation>
<activeByDefault>false</activeByDefault>
</activation>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.jacoco</groupId>
<artifactId>jacoco-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>${jacoco-maven-plugin-version}</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>default-prepare-agent</id>
<goals>
<goal>prepare-agent</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<propertyName>surefire.argLine</propertyName>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>default-prepare-agent-integration</id>
<goals>
<goal>prepare-agent-integration</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<propertyName>failsafe.argLine</propertyName>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>
When you activate the sonar profile the not-sonar profile will automatically be turned off.
This should be a little more elegant than using other plugins to do the work for you. You can now use the ${surefire.argLine} variable in your argLine and it will always exists and be set when you run your build.
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<argLine>${surefire.argLine} -XX:MaxPermSize=512m</argLine>
</configuration>
</plugin>
If you still have problems because the ${surefire.argLine} does not have a value you can also set a dummy property like so:
<profile>
<id>not-sonar</id>
<properties>
<surefire.argLine>-DdummyProperty=notUsed</surefire.argLine>
<failsafe.argLine>-DdummyProperty=notUsed</failsafe.argLine>
</properties>
<activation>
<activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
</activation>
</profile>

Answer 6

I recently ran into the same issue and even took implicitly the same steps as you described with the same result. No clean solution I found worked for me.
So I ran several steps in debug mode and it seems that Maven replaces properties twice. That is not just in a lazy manner, as I thought, but in both eager and lazy manner:
eagerly (before any goal is run) are replaced static properties (defined in properties section of POM and probably also settings.xml),
lazily (before each execution) are replaced dynamic properties.
This is where our step with setting a blank property as a default failed. Maven just went:
eager replace of default value (blank)
JaCoCo sets dynamic value
lazy replace of dynamic values (nothing to replace now, already used the blank value)
Finally the solution is to set the default value dynamically. This can be done with GMaven plugin like this:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.gmaven</groupId>
<artifactId>gmaven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.5</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>set-default-values</id>
<phase>initialize</phase>
<goals>
<goal>execute</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<source>
project.properties.'surefire.argLine' = ''
</source>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
So now Maven goes:
eager replace of static properties
GMaven dynamically sets default value (if profile is active)
JaCoCo sets dynamic value
Surefire runs with correctly set argLine
With active profile the exec file is generated, with non-active profile the blank default value is used and build succeeds.

Answer 7

My solution to use argLine in the maven-surefire-plugin safely.
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.groovy.maven</groupId>
<artifactId>gmaven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.0</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>set-custom-arg-line</id>
<phase>validate</phase>
<goals>
<goal>execute</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<source>
def argLine = project.properties['argLine'];
if (argLine == null) {
argLine = "";
}
project.properties.argLine = argLine;
</source>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.19.1</version>
<configuration>
<argLine>-Xmx1024m ${argLine}</argLine>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Answer 8

For me upgrading the version from 0.7.7.201606060606 to 0.7.9 also fixed this.
I had to explicitly add the version to the commandline (not just to the pom) because the build server kept using the old verison. This can be done as follows:
org.jacoco:jacoco-maven-plugin:0.7.9:prepare-agent
instead of
org.jacoco:jacoco-maven-plugin:prepare-agent
The jacoco plugin site (for sonar) states that argline must be added as a property. For me it also worken when using the #{argLine} in the surefire plugin settings.

Answer 9

Update the POM.xml as
<plugin>
<groupId>org.jacoco</groupId>
<artifactId>jacoco-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>0.7.7.201606060606</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<goals>
<goal>prepare-agent</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>report</id>
<phase>prepare-package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>report</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.12.1</version>
<configuration>
<argLine>${argLine} -XX:PermSize=256m -XX:MaxPermSize=1048m</argLine>
</configuration>
</plugin>
and then the most important thing is to run the Maven project with goals:
mvn jacoco:prepare-agent clean test jacoco:report

Answer 10

I have added a Maven/Java project with 1 domain class with the following features:
Unit or Integration testing with the plugins Surefire and Failsafe.
Findbugs.
Test coverage via Jacoco.
I kept the project as simple as possible. The project puts many suggestions from these and other posts together in an example project. Thank you, contributors!
The readme file gives a brief explanation. It explains how you can run either a user or an integration test with Jacoco.
Enjoy!