Could not create task or type of type: junit

Balaji D Loganathan

1 min read


Could not create task or type of type: junit.

Ant could not find the task or a class this task relies upon.

This is common and has a number of causes; the usual
solutions are to read the manual pages then download and
install needed JAR files, or fix the build file:
– You have misspelt ‘junit’.
Fix: check your spelling.
– The task needs an external JAR file to execute
and this is not found at the right place in the classpath.
Fix: check the documentation for dependencies.
Fix: declare the task.
– The task is an Ant optional task and the JAR file and/or libraries
implementing the functionality were not found at the time you
yourself built your installation of Ant from the Ant sources.
Fix: Look in the ANT_HOME/lib for the ‘ant-‘ JAR corresponding to the
task and make sure it contains more than merely a META-INF/MANIFEST.MF.
If all it contains is the manifest, then rebuild Ant with the needed
libraries present in ${ant.home}/lib/optional/ , or alternatively,
download a pre-built release version from apache.org
– The build file was written for a later version of Ant
Fix: upgrade to at least the latest release version of Ant
– The task is not an Ant core or optional task
and needs to be declared using <taskdef>.
– You are attempting to use a task defined using
<presetdef> or <macrodef> but have spelt wrong or not
defined it at the point of use

Remember that for JAR files to be visible to Ant tasks implemented
in ANT_HOME/lib, the files must be in the same directory or on the
classpath

Please neither file bug reports on this problem, nor email the
Ant mailing lists, until all of these causes have been explored,
as this is not an Ant bug.

Total time: 0 seconds

SpringDevNotebook Spring-Chap1-lab4build.xml

I was testing a code example in chapter I from the book “Spring A Developer’s Notebook” and i got this infamous error while running the ant task to test.

ant test
The timely solution is add the junit.jar to your classpath ..that is

In Windows Command Prompt
set classpath=%classpath%;C:projectsjavajunit-4.1junit-4.1.jar;
an then run the ant task…. say C:projectsjavaSpringDevNotebookSpring-Chap1-lab4>ant test

In UnixCommand Prompt
export CLASSAPTH=$CLASSPATH:/path/to/junit/junit.jar

Thats solves the problem, if you know any other elegant idea on this please let me know.
I made a blog on this bcos Apache Ant Forum mailing list is not easily searchable for a given question. 🙁

Related posts:

4 Replies to “Could not create task or type of type: junit”

  1. I don’t like adding jar files to the classpath that’s permanently in use, so I much prefer putting it into the ANT_HOME/lib directory, just like the error message suggests. Would that not work for you?

  2. I am also trying run tests from springframework.org tutorial. Everything works fine, except $ant tests.
    I have tried both solutions (from comments) with no success.

  3. I am using debian etch.
    To solve this problem, just install the ant-optional packet.
    apt-get install ant-optional
    then rerun:
    ant test

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *