Unrooted Tests

Question

When running all my tests in Eclipse (Eclipse 3.4 'Ganymede'), one test is listed under "Unrooted Tests". I'm using Junit 3.8 and this particular test extends TestCase. I do not see any difference between this test and the other tests. I don't remember seeing this occur in Eclipse 3.3 (Europa).

Clarification:

We haven't moved to JUnit 4.0 yet, so we are not using annotations. I also googled and it seemed like most people were having issues with JUnit 4, but I did not see any solutions. At this point the test passes both locally and in CruiseControl so I'm not overly concerned, but curious.

When I first saw this, though, it was on a failing test that only failed when run with other tests. This led me down the rabbit hole looking for a solution to the "Unrooted" issue that I never found. Eventually I found the culprit in another test that was not properly tearing down.

I agree, it does seem like an Eclipse issue.

Answer 1

Finally I found the solution. The problem is that you are not defining your test cases using annotations but are still doing it the "old way". As soon as you convert over to using annotations you will be able to run one test at a time again.

Here is an example of what a basic test should now look like using annotations:

import static org.junit.Assert.*; // Notice the use of "static" here
import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Test;

public class MyTests { // Notice we don't extent TestCases anymore

  @Before
  public void setUp() { // Note: It is not required to call this setUp()
    // ...
  }

  @Test
  public void doSomeTest() { // Note: method need not be called "testXXX"
    // ...
    assertTrue(1 == 1);
  }
}

Answer 2

I was getting the "unrooted tests" error message as well and it went away magically. I believe it was due to the fact that I was using Eclipse with a Maven project. When I added a new method to my Test class and gave it the @Test annotation, it began getting the error message when I tried to run that one method using the "Run as Junit test" menu option; however, once I ran a maven build the unrooted tests message disappeared and I believe that is the solution to the problem in the future.

Run a maven build because it will refresh the class that JUnit is using.

Answer 3

If your class extends TestCase somewhere in its hierarchy, you have to use the JUnit 3 test runner listed in the drop down under run configurations. Using the JUnit 4 runner (the default I believe) causes that unrooted test phenomenon to occur.

Answer 4

I got this error because I renamed my test method and then tried to run the test in Eclipse by clicking on the same run configuration - referring to the old method which now didn't exist.

Answer 5

We solved the problem by making sure our test project was built. We had an issue in the build path which would not allow our test class to be compiled. Once we resolved the build path issue, the test compiled and the "new" method was able to be run. So we can assume that "Unrooted" tests also mean that they don't exist in the compiled binary.

Answer 6

I've never seen this -- but as far as I can tell from skimming Google for a few minutes, this appears as though it could be a bug in Eclipse rather than a problem with your test. You don't have the @Test annotation on the test, I assume? Can you blow the test away and recreate it, and if so do you get the same error?

Answer 7

Another scenario that causes this problem was me blindly copy/pasting a method that requires a parameter. i.e.

import org.junit.Test;

public class MyTest {

    @Test
    public void someMethod(String param) {
          // stuff
    }

}

You have a few simple solutions:

1. define the variable in the specific test method

2. add it as an instance variable to the test class

3. create a setup method and annotate it with @Before

Answer 8

For me, it was due to the project got build path issues. My maven dependencies configuration needs to be updated.

Answer 9

I had that problem and putting one "@Test" before the test method solved it!

like this:

@Test public void testOne() { // ... assertTrue(1 == 1); }

Answer 10

These are the two scenarios that the Unrooted errors show up.

1. If you have missed the annotation @Test before the test.

   @Test

   public void foo(){ }

2. If it is a Gwt project and when two mock of the same object are defined. Lets say there is one class Class A and

   @GwtMock private A atest;

   @GwtMock private A a; Then this will also show a Unrooted test error.

Answer 11

I had the same problem with java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/hamcrest/SelfDescribing

you need the jar hamcrest. same question 14539072: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/hamcrest/SelfDescribing

Answer 12

I could the fix the issue by shifting from TestRunner ver 4.0 to 3 in run configurations for the individual test method.

Answer 13

Do not extend junit.framework.TestCase in your test class with junit1.4 and this should solve the problem

Answer 14

You are using Hamcrest? or another library to help in your test?. You are not using

import static org.junit.Assert.*;

Check if in your test you use:

import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.assertThat;

or other assert isn´t JUnit assert.

Answer 15

It turned out to be that my build path had some error...some jars were missing. I reconfigured build path and it worked!

Answer 16

For me the problem was, that an exception was thrown in the @BeforeClass or @AfterClass methods. This will also cause tests to be categorized as unrooted.

Answer 17

I got this error with the test method name as "test"

@Test 
public void test() {
 // ... assertTrue(1 == 1); 
}

I renamed the method and it worked

Answer 18

I ran into this problem by not also declaring the test to be static.

Answer 19

One other thing you can try is to upgrade your version of JUnit to at least 4.12.

I was experiencing this problem for a while with a class that extended one that used @RunWith(Parameterized.class).

After a while, and I'm sorry that I don't know precisely what I did to cause this, the 'Unrooted Tests' message went away, but the test still didn't run correctly. The constructor that should have accepted arguments from the @Parameters method was never getting called; execution jumped straight from @BeforeClass to @AfterClass.

The fix for that problem was to upgrade JUnit from the 4.8.1 it was using, to the latest (4.12). So maybe that could help someone else in the future.

Answer 20

Maybe it's just a logical confusion about the goal of the method. Let's remember:

E.g. correct tagged test method:

@Test
@Transactional
@Rollback(true)
public void testInsertCustomer() {  
    (...)
}

-With Eclipse Junit plugin, You can run that test method using context menu over the method (E.g. at package explorer expanding the class and methods and selecting "testInsertCustomer()" method and from that item selecting "Run as >> JUnit test").

If you forgot "@Test" tag, or simply the method is not a test, but a (private or not) common method for using as utility for the other tests (e.g. "private fillCustomerObject()"), then the method does not require "@Test" tag, and simply you can not run it as a JUnit test!

It's easy that you could create a utility method and later you forgot the real goal of that method, so if you try to run it as a test, JUnit will shout "Unrooted Tests".

Answer 21

For me this problem was created by a real-time exception thrown in the @AfterClass method (take a look here for documentation):

Basically all the test methods succeeded but at the end of the class this method was failing. Therefore all the tests seems fine but there was on my Eclipse an additional "unrooted test" failed.