Spring Boot fails to run maven-surefire-plugin ClassNotFoundException org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ForkedBooter

Question

Running maven (3.5.2) build of a Spring Boot 2.0.2.RELEASE applicaton (generated by web initialiser with web dependencies) fails executing the maven-surefire-plugin saying just:

Error: Could not find or load main class org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ForkedBooter

Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ForkedBooter

Why is this happening? Is it a problem in boot + surefire integration = a bug?

For reference, the dependencies that seem relevant are:

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>2.0.2.RELEASE</version>
    <relativePath/>
</parent>
...
<dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
...
<dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>
...
<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

Stereophotography

The upstream issue shows three workarounds (the two listed here, plus forkCount 0), but none are without problems ☹ – Wyatan

Answer 1

Workaround for the issue was to override Spring Boot's maven-surefire-plugin definition and set useSystemClassLoader to false. Read Surefire docs for more details

<build>
    <plugins>
        ...
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <useSystemClassLoader>false</useSystemClassLoader>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

Stereophotography

Yes, I can confirm the solutions fixes the problem, but what is the issue behind the scenes? - The nightly builds on our CI system were suddenly red without any code changes. Is it an issue with Spring Boot? – Odelle

@Odelle take a look at this, I arrived here by this post – Pyle

As said in the other answer and the upstream issue this workaround is not without problems. – Wyatan

This fix worked for me, however, I got a warning that a version should be supplied/indicated. To avoid future errors I'd recommend adding one. As of now, <version>2.22.1</version> seems to be the latest. – Whisenant

one should set the version not to get maven warnings on build. edit: as still said in previuous comment – Blaine

@Blaine the version was inherited from Spring boot, which is one of it's main features - it's supposed to define the compatible versions for your. – Stereophotography

Answer 2

The <useSystemClassLoader>false</useSystemClassLoader> solution provideded by jediz did allow my surefire tests to run, but broke class loading in some of my Spring Boot integration tests.

The following maven-surefire-plugin configuration worked for me:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
        <argLine>-Djdk.net.URLClassPath.disableClassPathURLCheck=true</argLine>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Trioxide

As said in the upstream issue this workaround is also not without problems ☹ – Wyatan

This simple option solved my problem that occurred in both 1.8 and 11. Tks! – Sophisticated

Answer 3

This is due to a known bug in the Maven Surefire plugin. It was fixed in version 3.0.0-M1, which was released in November 2018. So the simplest and most reliable fix is to upgrade which version of the plugin you use.

Updating the maven-surefire-plugin from 2.12.4 to 3.0.0-M1 worked for me. The project did not explicitly use the plugin, so I had to add a new plugin dependency.

<plugins>
   ...
   <plugin>
      <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>3.0.0-M1</version>
   </plugin>
   ...
</plugins>

Elamitic

Answer 4

To me, the solution was to run mvn as

_JAVA_OPTIONS=-Djdk.net.URLClassPath.disableClassPathURLCheck=true mvn clean compile package

Other ideas (giving the system property to the maven argument list, different changes in pom.xml, settings.xml) did not work.

Despite that it didn't contain the exact solution, also this answer was very helpful for me to make it clear, that it is an unfortunate cooperation of two independent, alone harmless bugs in the Ubuntu JDK and the Maven Surefire Plugin.

Recent Debian (buster) with the same JDK and Maven versions doesn't seem affected by the problem, but Ubuntu (xenial) did.

The exact solution is coming from this answer.

_{Update from the future: with Debian Buster is alles okay and this workaround is not needed any more.}

Gravure

Answer 5

I was able to remove the maven-surefire-plugin from my POM after adding this to the top of my POM (inside the <project> node)

<prerequisites>
    <maven>3.6.3</maven>
</prerequisites>

Why do I think this is the right answer?

• It specifies the version of Maven that Maven recommends using: https://maven.apache.org/download.cgi
• when you run mvn versions:display-plugin-updates it shows that it's taking the maven-surefire-plugin 3.0.0-M3 from super-pom, which so far seems to have this issue fixed.
• You don't have to manage individual plugin versions independently going forward. Just your minimum maven version which controls the super-pom version.

Gutierrez

I tried this solution and here's what I got: [WARNING] The project com.example:pom:0.0.2 uses prerequisites which is only intended for maven-plugin projects but not for non maven-plugin projects. For such purposes you should use the maven-enforcer-plugin. See https://maven.apache.org/enforcer/enforcer-rules/requireMavenVersion.html – Tensile

i tested it with maven 3.6.0, OpenJDK11, and Spring boot 2.1.X parent. I managed to solve the issue by using rvange's answer above. – Tensile

I'm sorry that my answer didn't work for you, but glad that you found one that did! My answer is still working well for me though, on several projects, so I'm going to leave it there. – Gutierrez

Answer 6

Adding this to the maven-surefire-plugin I resolved the problem:

<plugin>    
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>   
  <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>    
  <configuration>
    <forkCount>0</forkCount>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

Loudmouth

Welcome to SO! When answering, please do more than toss out code. Instead, explain why the code should be the selected solution. The goal is to educate, to teach the OP how to fish, not just solve this current problem with a single fish. – Damnify

I've only seen the need for this when running an older version of the plugin under a newer version of Java, like 11. Try the latest version of the plugin instead. – Inman