Question

I would like to use the Java assert keyword in my Spring web-app, primarily on my domain classes (checking invariants within constructors), but I cannot see how to enable runtime assertion checking.

For a normal java application, I would use the -ea switch with the java command, but I don’t see how I can do that with Tomcat, etc.

Is this the recommended thing, or should I use the “Assert” class from the Spring framework? I’d rather keep my domain classes free of Spring dependencies, however.

Answer 1

For tomcat, add -ea to JAVA_OPTS (all java processes started), or even better to CATALINA_OPTS (only to web app engine).

Read the files catalina.bat or catalina.sh for more information on JAVA_OPTS and CATALINA_OPTS.

Edited: Thanks to comments from @Joachim