[PATCH] make the basedir system property optional

I hesitate to add another option to a plugin that already has too many options; this one is quite confusing. You refer to "the Ant test cases." Which Ant test cases? I assume they must have Java classes associated with them, because Surefire only knows how to execute Java classes. Would it be possible for you to unset the basedir property there?

I've just run into this; actually I ran into it last week, but it took me until yesterday to find a workaround (programmatically overriding Ant's basedir, eww), and then today finding the real cause. I now know way more about Ant's and Maven's innards than I wanted to!

I'm trying to test an Ant task by running an Ant build file from a subdirectory. So I have a test case/class which extends org.apache.tools.ant.BuildFileTest and passes it the name of an Ant build file. BuildFileTest, which extends JUnit's TestCase, is part of the test suite for Ant itself and its built-in tasks.

The problem is, the system property "basedir" set by Surefire (the base directory of the Maven project) conflicts with Ant, because the "basedir" attribute of a build.xml (base directory of an Ant project) can be overridden via the system property "basedir". A classic namespace collision. Both equally at fault, I suppose, but Ant /was/ there first!

Thus when my Ant task test looks for files using paths which relative to the the subdirectory, it can't find them because basedir is now pointing to the root of the Maven project, not the basedir of the Ant test build.

As Dan suggested, it is possible to unset basedir in the test class(es), but that seems like the wrong approach. I'd prefer that my test cases were independent of the test environment, without adding in environment-specific workarounds.

What is the expected use of Surefire's basedir system property, within a JUnit test? Who uses it? Perhaps the property could be renamed, perhaps as "maven.basedir". A test case which used this property would be Maven-dependent; might as well be explicit about it. (Or better still, avoid such dependencies entirely!)

Sean.

Just want to comment that I bumped into the exact same issue converting my ant based build for hibernate tools into a maven one.

Part of the tests are to verify that the ant tasks in hiberante tools work and because of this forced set of "basedir" it makes Ant behave differently/wrong when launched from within surefire driven tests.

I don't know why "basedir" is being set but did find a "decent" workaround for configureProject(..) of BuildFileTestCase.java:

project.setProperty("basedir", antfile.getParentFile().getAbsolutePath());

Where antfile is the location of the build file you are testing.
That ensures that its consistent with when no basedir are set.

Downside is though that it also overrides any specific basedir set in the build.xml which is a shame.

Anyway, just adding that for prosperity and here is my +1 to somehow isolate that "basedir" property set by surefire so its not "leaking" into the actual tests.