How to specify JAR location of a Maven dependency as plugin parameter?

Question

I've tried to follow the configuration from this response on SO to use the jar location in my local repo as a plugin parameter, but it doesn't seem to work. I don't know if this due to a newer Maven version than the response (I'm using Maven 3.2.5).

In my pom.xml, I need to add a javaagent to my surefire plugin definition. The javaagent jar file is a dependency in my project.

I have tried the following:

<dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jmockit</groupId>
            <artifactId>jmockit</artifactId>
            <version>${jmockit.version}</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
</dependencies>

...
        <!-- Configuration to use jmockit on IBM J9 -->
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <argLine>-javaagent:${org.jmockit:jmockit:jar}</argLine>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

I was expecting that the ${org.jmockit:jmockit:jar} would be expanded to the location of the jar, but in my mvn console I see the following error:

[ERROR] Command wascmd.exe /X /C "C:\IBM\SDP\jdk\jre\bin\java -javaagent:${org.jmockit:jmockit:jar} -jar C:\dev\Eclipse\rtc-connector\target\surefire\surefirebooter1389906134960134.jar C:\dev\Eclipse\rtc-connector\target\surefire\surefire5488684370604495471tmp C:\dev\Eclipse\rtc-connector\target\surefire\surefire_05402037720997438783tmp"

So obviously the parameter is not getting expanded. I was hoping/expecting to see something like -javaagent:c:\users\eric\.m2\repository\org.jmockit\1.20\jmockit-1.20.jar or something similar.

Is there a clean way I can reference the jar from my dependency in my plugin configuration? I know I can use the dependency-plugin to copy the jar to a known location in my target folder and then point to that, but I was hoping there would be an easier solution that doesn't require the intermediary step.

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 07 '17 at 18:39

To be variable expanded need to add maven-dependency-plugin:

        <!-- obtain ${*:*:jar} properties -->
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>getClasspathFilenames</id>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>properties</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>

        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <argLine>-javaagent:${org.jmockit:jmockit:jar}</argLine>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 14 '20 at 04:37

You need to set the "argLine" tag value as follow :

            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${surefire.version}</version>
                <configuration>
                    <argLine> 
-javaagent:"${localRepository}/org/jmockit/jmockit/${jmockit.version}/jmockit-${jmockit.version}.jar"
                    </argLine>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

You need to set the .m2 repo path where the jmockit jar is present. It's working for me.

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 28 '15 at 18:53

The maven-dependency-plugin contains a goal build-classpath which would solve this problem.

On command line you can do things like this:

mvn dependency:build-classpath -DincludeArtifactIds=testng -DincludeGroupIds=testng

which results in:

C:\repository\org\testng\testng\6.8.21\testng-6.8.21.jar

The resulting classpath can also be put into a property outputProperty .... This could be configured into pom as well...

How to specify JAR location of a Maven dependency as plugin parameter?

3 Answers3