Anyone using maven has this problem solved already. I agree there
might be crufty builds which might require downloading and installing,
but a lot of software development now uses maven.
Maven has versioned dependencies. So long as junit is in a repository
(and it is), *no install is needed*; the build process picks it up
automatically (and puts it into the local maven repository). Ten
versions? No problem.
This is what we do in the Glassfish pom.xml; we have no need for an
installed junit. The build find the appropriate version from a maven
repository. This is far more elegant and free of headaches caused by
actually installing something.
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>4.3.1</version>
<scope>test</scope>
<optional>true</optional>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
..............................................
Lloyd Chambers
lloyd.chambers at sun.com
GlassFish team, LSARC member
On Oct 21, 2008, at 1:08 PM, Jim Walker wrote:
>> One of the other ARC members observes that their Maven build system
>> expects to find junit in a specific place, so this installation
>> will not be useful. Also, the usage model for junit requires often
>> requires current and/or specific releases, which come out pretty
>> frequently. Sometimes, developers even require several versions
>> installed. There have been at least six 'dot' releases in the last
>> two years. How is the project team addressing this requirement?
>
> We understand we will not be able to support all applications that
> depend
> on Junit for one reason or another.
>
> We also understand the problem where several open source projects
> depend
> on older versions of Junit and don't plan to update their code to use
> the newer version. We felt it was best to start by porting the current
> version and revise it as new releases are made available. Then, look
> at
> adding additional older versions that are frequently used/requested.
