Maven 3 and JUnit 4 compilation problem: package org.junit does not exist

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

Answer 1

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 2

@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 3

I had my files at the correct places, and just removing <scope>test</scope> from the JUnit dependency entry solved the problem (I am using JUnit 4.12). I believe that with the test scope the dependency was just being ignored during the compilation phase. Now everything is working even when I call mvn test.

Answer 4

I had the same problem. All i did was - From the pom.xml file i deleted the dependency for junit 3.8 and added a new dependency for junit 4.8. Then i did maven clean and maven install. It did the trick. To verify , after maven install i went project->properties-build path->maven dependencies and saw that now the junit 3.8 jar is gone !, instead junit 4.8 jar is listed. cool!!. Now my test runs like a charm.. Hope this helps somehow..

Answer 5

I also ran into this issue - I was trying to pull in an object from a source and it was working in the test code but not the src code. To further test, I copied a block of code from the test and dropped it into the src code, then immediately removed the JUnit lines so I just had how the test was pulling in the object. Then suddenly my code wouldn't compile.
The issue was that when I dropped the code in, Eclipse helpfully resolved all the classes so I had JUnit calls coming from my src code, which was not proper. I should have noticed the warnings at the top about unused imports, but I neglected to see them.
Once I removed the unused JUnit imports in my src file, it all worked beautifully.

Answer 6

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