The following failure will occur if you need to access the internet via a proxy when building continuum:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Test set: org.apache.maven.continuum.core.action.CreateProjectsFromMetadataTest ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tests run: 1, Failures: 1, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 1.282 sec <<< FAILURE! testExecute(org.apache.maven.continuum.core.action.CreateProjectsFromMetadataTest) Time elapsed: 1.266 sec <<< FAILURE! junit.framework.AssertionFailedError: Should not have errors at junit.framework.Assert.fail(Assert.java:47) at junit.framework.Assert.assertTrue(Assert.java:20) at junit.framework.Assert.assertFalse(Assert.java:34) at org.apache.maven.continuum.core.action.CreateProjectsFromMetadataTest.testExecute(CreateProjectsFromMetadataTest.java:66) This is because mungedURL.isValid() calls openConnection() on the URL, which fails without providing any proxy values. I tried: mvn -DproxySet=true -DproxyHost=<my.proxy> -DproxyPort=80 install But the proxy requires authentication which I think requires code something like: URLConnection connection = url.openConnection(); String password = "username:password"; String encodedPassword = base64Encode( password ); connection.setRequestProperty( "Proxy-Authorization", encodedPassword ); Given this is a NTLM microsoft proxy, I have the same problems as maven itself has. I've struggled to find docs on the internet that explain how to make this stuff work transparently. Jakarta Commons HttpClient at least has support for NTLM (http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/httpclient/authentication.html) but it would be nicer if somehow the windows logon credentials were passed through... Anyway, my workaround is to disable this test.