How to pass args to JVM which runs tests with Gradle

Question

I am a Gradle rookie and I am not sure whether Gradle will start the new JVM when it runs the test set.

Like Passing JVM arguments to Gradle test task I want to pass some parameters to the JVM running the test set.

I added the following lines to build.gradle:

...
test {
    groovy {
        jvmArgs '-agentpath:/usr/lib/code_dependency_capturer.so' // add line
        srcDirs = ['src/test']
        if (!JavaVersion.current().isJava8Compatible()) {
            exclude '**/v8/*'
            exclude '**/vm8/*'
        }
    }
    resources {
        srcDirs = ['src/test-resources']
    }
}
...

But it tells me:

A problem occurred evaluating root project 'groovy'.
Could not find method jvmArgs() for arguments[-agentpath:/usr/lib/code_dependency_capturer.so] on source set 'test' of type org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.DefaultSourceSet. 

I googled this error but failed to solve it.

Trevor

Answer 1

Try setting the jvmArgs of the enclosing test task rather than trying to set them on groovy.

The error you are getting suggests that jvmArgs isn’t present on groovy.

Example:

...
test {
    jvmArgs '-agentpath:/usr/lib/code_dependency_capturer.so' // add line
    groovy {      
        srcDirs = ['src/test']
        ...
    }
    ...
}

This is just a guess as I don’t have a gradle setup handy on which to confirm but worth a try as jvmArgs is documented as a property for test:

https://docs.gradle.org/current/dsl/org.gradle.api.tasks.testing.Test.html#org.gradle.api.tasks.testing.Test:jvmArgs

List<String> jvmArgs

The extra arguments to use to launch the JVM for the process. Does not include system properties and the minimum/maximum heap size.

Since jvmArgs is a list of String you can pass it multiple arguments, refer to:

http://docs.groovy-lang.org/next/html/documentation/working-with-collections.html#_list_literals

Example:

  jvmArgs ["-Xarg1", "-Xarg2"]

For "-Dprop=value" system properties use the systemProperties of the test task instead:

https://docs.gradle.org/current/dsl/org.gradle.api.tasks.testing.Test.html#org.gradle.api.tasks.testing.Test:systemProperties

Airs

TL DR; jvmArgs is an array. – Hegel

... present on the test task not groovy – Airs

I need to run unit tests with different timeZone at one sub module. So I update like this: test{ jvmArgs '-Duser.country=US -Duser.language=en -Duser.timezone="Asia/Colombo"' } But stil it's not getting what I changed. any idea? – Addlepated

Setting like this solved above issue. test{ systemProperty "user.country", "US" systemProperty "user.language", "en" systemProperty "user.timezone", "Asia/Colombo" useTestNG() { suites "src/test/resources/testng.xml" } } – Addlepated

Original question wasn’t about system properties but I’ve updated my answer to show a few more examples and to highlight that jvmArgs is List<String> and linked to the test task docs which is the best reference @Addlepated – Airs

I can't making it work :/ ``` tasks.test{ jvmArgs("-XX:+ShowCodeDetailsInExceptionMessages") allJvmArgs = listOf("-XX:+ShowCodeDetailsInExceptionMessages") } ``` – Weitzman