Maven 3 and JUnit 4 compilation problem: package o

Question

I am trying to build a simple Java project with Maven. In my pom-file I declare JUnit 4.8.2 as the only dependency. Still Maven insists on using JUnit version 3.8.1. How do I fix it?

The problem manifests itself in a compilation failure: "package org.junit does not exist". This is because of the import statement in my source code. The correct package name in JUnit 4.* is org.junit.* while in version 3.* it is junit.framework.*

I think I have found documentation on the root of the problem on http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-surefire-plugin/examples/junit.html but the advice there seems to be meant for Maven experts. I did not understand what to do.

Answer 1

@Dennis Roberts: You were absolutely right: My test class was located in src/main/java. Also the value of the "scope" element in the POM for JUnit was "test", although that is how it is supposed to be. The problem was that I had been sloppy when creating the test class in Eclipse, resulting in it being created in src/main/java insted of src/test/java. This became easier to see in Eclipse's Project Explorer view after running "mvn eclipse:eclipse", but your comment was what made me see it first. Thanks.

Answer 2

my problem was a line inside my pom.xml i had the line <sourceDirectory>${basedir}/src</sourceDirectory> removing this line made maven use regular structure folders which solves my issue

Answer 3

I had a similar problem of Eclipse compiling my code just fine but Maven failed when compiling the tests every time despite the fact JUnit was in my list of dependencies and the tests were in /src/test/java/.

In my case, I had the wrong version of JUnit in my list of dependencies. I wrote JUnit4 tests (with annotations) but had JUnit 3.8.x as my dependency. Between version 3.8.x and 4 of JUnit they changed the package name from junit.framework to org.junit which is why Maven still breaks compiling using a JUnit jar.

I'm still not entirely sure why Eclipse successfully compiled. It must have its own copy of JUnit4 somewhere in the classpath. Hope this alternative solution is useful to people. I reached this solution after following Arthur's link above.

Answer 4

Changing the junit version fixed this for me. Seems like version 3.8.1 didn't work in my case. Issue fixed upon changing it to 4.12

Answer 5

How did you declare the version?

<version>4.8.2</version>

Be aware of the meaning from this declaration explained here (see NOTES):

When declaring a "normal" version such as 3.8.2 for Junit, internally this is represented as "allow anything, but prefer 3.8.2." This means that when a conflict is detected, Maven is allowed to use the conflict algorithms to choose the best version. If you specify [3.8.2], it means that only 3.8.2 will be used and nothing else.

To force using the version 4.8.2 try

<version>[4.8.2]</version>

As you do not have any other dependencies in your project there shouldn't be any conflicts that cause your problem. The first declaration should work for you if you are able to get this version from a repository. Do you inherit dependencies from a parent pom?

Answer 6

My case was a simple oversight.

I put the JUnit dependency declaration inside <dependencies> under the <dependencyManagement/> node instead of <project/> in the POM file. Correct way is:

<project>
<!-- Other elements -->
    <dependencies>
    <!-- Other dependencies-->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.11</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
<project>