Skipping Tests

To skip running the tests for a particular project, set the skipTests property to true.

<project>
  [...]
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.19.1</version>
        <configuration>
          <skipTests>true</skipTests>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  [...]
</project>

You can also skip the tests via the command line by executing the following command:

mvn install -DskipTests

Since skipTests is also supported by the Surefire Plugin, this will have the effect of not running any tests. If, instead, you want to skip only the integration tests being run by the Failsafe Plugin, you would use the skipITs property instead:

mvn install -DskipITs

If you absolutely must, you can also use the maven.test.skip property to skip compiling the tests. maven.test.skip is honored by Surefire, Failsafe and the Compiler Plugin.

mvn install -Dmaven.test.skip=true

Skipping by Default

If you want to skip tests by default but want the ability to re-enable tests from the command line, you need to go via a properties section in the pom:

<project>
  [...]
  <properties>
    <skipTests>true</skipTests>
  </properties>
  [...]
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.19.1</version>
        <configuration>
          <skipTests>false</skipTests>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  [...]
</project>

This will allow you to run with tests disabled by default and to run them with this command:

mvn install -DskipTests=false

The same can be done with the skip parameter and other boolean properties of the plugin.