How to run TestNG from command line

Question

How exactly do I run a .java TestNG project from a command line?

I have read through the TestNG documentation, and tried the following to no avail:

C:\projectfred> java org.testng.TestNG testng.xml 

... with the following testng.xml file in my project:

<!DOCTYPE suite SYSTEM "http://testng.org/testng-1.0.dtd" >  
<suite name="SuiteAll" verbose="1">
    <test name="TestAll">  
        <packages>  
            <package name="com.project.fred.tests"/>
        </packages>  
    </test>  
</suite>

The error I get is this:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/testng/TestNG
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.testng.TestNG
        at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
        at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
Could not find the main class: org.testng.TestNG.  Program will exit.

Obviously, I am not referencing TestNG correctly in my command line. Does anyone know how to get this working?

Answer 1

Below command works for me. Provided that all required jars including testng jar kept inside lib.

java -cp "lib/*" org.testng.TestNG testng.xml

Answer 2

You need to have the testng.jar under classpath.

try C:\projectfred> java -cp "path-tojar/testng.jar:path_to_yourtest_classes" org.testng.TestNG testng.xml

Update:

Under linux I ran this command and it would be some thing similar on Windows either

test/bin# java -cp ".:../lib/*" org.testng.TestNG testng.xml

Directory structure:

/bin - All my test packages are under bin including testng.xml
/src - All source files are under src
/lib - All libraries required for the execution of tests are under this.

Once I compile all sources they go under bin directory. So, in the classpath I need to specify contents of bin directory and all the libraries like testng.xml, loggers etc over here. Also copy testng.xml to bin folder if you dont want to specify the full path where the testng.xml is available.

 /bin
    -- testng.xml
    -- testclasses
    -- Properties files if any.
 /lib
    -- testng.jar
    -- log4j.jar

Update:

Go to the folder MyProject and type run the java command like the way shown below:-

java -cp ".: C:\Program Files\jbdevstudio4\studio\plugins\*" org.testng.TestNG testng.xml

I believe the testng.xml file is under C:\Users\me\workspace\MyProject if not please give the full path for testng.xml file

Answer 3

I had faced some problem because I downloaded TestNG plugin from Eclipse. Here what I did to get the Job done :

1. After adding TestNG to your project library create one folder in your Project names as lib ( name can be anything ) :

2. Go to "C:\Program Files\Eclipse\eclipse-java-mars-R-win32-x86_64\eclipse\plugins" location and copy com.beust.jcommander_1.72.0.jar and org.testng_6.14.2.r20180216145.jar file to created folder (lib).

Note : Files are testng.jar and jcommander.jar

3. Now Launch CMD, and navigate to your project directory and then type :
   Java -cp C:\Users\User123\TestNG\lib*;C:\Users\User123\TestNG\bin org.testng.TestNG testng.xml

That's it !
Let me know if you have any more concerns.

Answer 4

You will need to use semicolon as delimiter while specifying the jar and class file path in windows. This solved the issue.
Assuming the class file is under C:.

java -cp ".;C:\testng.jar" org.testng.TestNG testing.xml

Answer 5

Thanks a lot it was really very helpful.. I was able to run my TestNG classes using command line, but still I would like to wrap-up the things one last time as follows..

1) Set the classpath for the testng.jar in the environment variables
(either manually or via command line).

2) Create a new folder "MyTest".

3) Compile all your classes(testNG+java) and put them(.class files )
in a new folder "Mytest\bin".

4) Put your 'testng.xml' and '.properties' files to "Mytest\bin"
again.

5) Put all the .jar files (testng,selenium... etc) in a new folder
"Mytest\lib".

6) Browse to the folder "bin" via command line and run the command
java -cp "..\lib\*;" org.testng.TestNG testng.xml

this should run your testNG cases.

Answer 6

Prepare MANIFEST.MF file with the following content

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Main-Class: org.testng.TestNG

Pack all test and dependency classes in the same jar, say tests.jar

jar cmf MANIFEST.MF tests.jar -C folder-with-classes/ .

Notice trailing ".", replace folder-with-classes/ with proper folder name or path.

Create testng.xml with content like below

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE suite SYSTEM "http://testng.org/testng-1.0.dtd" >
<suite name="Tests" verbose="5">
  <test name="Test1">
    <classes>
      <class name="com.example.yourcompany.qa.Test1"/>
    </classes>
  </test>  
</suite>

Replace com.example.yourcompany.qa.Test1 with path to your Test class.

Run your tests

java -jar tests.jar testng.xml