When I'm running tests I hate staring at a blinking cursor with no idea what's running. To fix this I've added completion messages to all my tests. However I've realized that its a really hacky solution and adds fluff.
Assuming that TestNG's verbosity level prints the test description, how can I set the verbosity level in Maven? Note that I don't have a test.xml file, so if its the only way then I have no idea how to have a test.xml file + Maven's autogenerated test.xml file work together.
Since maven-failsafe-plugin version 2.19 the verbosity level can be configured as follow:
<configuration>
...
<properties>
<property>
<name>surefire.testng.verbose</name>
<value>-1</value>
</property>
</properties>
...
</configuration>
Note:
The verbosity level is 0 to 10, where 10 is most detailed.
-1 will put TestNG in debug mode.
Surefire lets you invoke TestNG with any command line parameters you like, and TestNG does support a "verbose" command line, so it's probably only a matter of doing something like
<configuration>
<verbose>true</verbose>
</configuration>
Okay... so, you need let testng.xml and pom.xml work togther.
POM.xml
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.12.1</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>integration-test</id>
<goals>
<goal>integration-test</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<includes>
<include>**/*IT.java</include>
<include>**/*IT.groovy</include>
</includes>
<suiteXmlFiles>
<suiteXmlFile>testng-asia.xml</suiteXmlFile>
<suiteXmlFile>testng-emea.xml</suiteXmlFile>
<suiteXmlFile>testng-ny.xml</suiteXmlFile>
</suiteXmlFiles>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>verify</id>
<goals>
<goal>verify</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
Then, set verbose level in testng*.xml
like that
<suite name="TEST Ex" verbose="2" preserve-order="true" >
<test name="NOTE" preserve-order="true" >
<classes>
<class name="*IT" />
<class name="*IT"/>
</classes>
</test>
</suite>
Try verbose level = 10. It doesn't solve the no XML question, but it can give you more information that you seem to need.