Question

Is it possible to run an external command before running tests in a given JUnit file? I run my tests using the Eclipse’s Run command. Using JUnit 4.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Very vague question. Specifically, you didn’t mention how you are running your JUnit tests. Also you mentioned ‘file’, and a file can contain several JUnit tests. Do you want to run the external command before each of those tests, or before any of them are executed?

But more on topic:

If you are using JUnit 4 or greater then you can tag a method with the @Before annotation and the method will be executed before each of your tagged @Test methods. Alternatively, tagging a static void method with @BeforeClass will cause it to be run before any of the @Test methods in the class are run.

public class MyTestClass {

    @BeforeClass
    public static void calledBeforeAnyTestIsRun() {
        // Do something
    }

    @Before
    public void calledBeforeEachTest() {
       // Do something
    }

    @Test
    public void testAccountCRUD() throws Exception {
    }
}

If you are using a version of JUnit earlier than 4, then you can override the setUp() and setUpBeforeClass() methods as replacements for @Before and @BeforeClass.

public class MyTestClass extends TestCase {

    public static void setUpBeforeClass() {
        // Do something
    }

    public void setUp() {
       // Do something
    }

    public void testAccountCRUD() throws Exception {
    }
}