How to distinguish failed tests from syntax error in jenkins pipeline - jenkins

Question

I have this Jenkinsfile:
node{
stage ('Checkout')
{
checkout scm
}
stage ('Build')
{
try {
sh '''
mvn clean -B org.jacoco:jacoco-maven-plugin:prepare-agent install
'''
} catch (err) {
// do nothing
currentBuild.result = 'FAILED'
} finally {
//step([$class: 'JUnitResultArchiver', testResults: '**/target/surefire-reports/TEST-*.xml'])
step([$class: 'XUnitBuilder', testTimeMargin: '3000', thresholdMode: 1,
thresholds: [
[$class: 'FailedThreshold', unstableThreshold: '2'],
[$class: 'SkippedThreshold', unstableThreshold: '']],
tools: [
[$class: 'JUnitType', deleteOutputFiles: false, failIfNotNew: false, pattern: '**/target/surefire-reports/TEST-*.xml', skipNoTestFiles: true, stopProcessingIfError: false]]
])
}
}
}
I want to mark the build as UNSTABLE when : some tests are failed using threshold of xUnit plugin, and I want to mark it FAILED if there is any error in the code like syntax error.
The problem here is that catch is executed in both situations: code error and test failure. How can I configure the Jenkinsfile to make the difference ?
After running a build that has 3 test failures ( threshold is 2 ), I expected the build to be UNSTABLE but it turned to FAILED:
[xUnit] [INFO] - Starting to record.
[xUnit] [INFO] - Processing JUnit
[xUnit] [INFO] - [JUnit] - 1 test report file(s) were found with the pattern '**/target/surefire-reports/TEST-*.xml' relative to '/var/lib/jenkins/workspace/jenkins-failure_master-EHKMAGGDJWHA7FNGHQYY2VJNJHBX2RXI3XJY4NU5EB2PYT4ERTZQ' for the testing framework 'JUnit'.
[xUnit] [INFO] - Check 'Failed Tests' threshold.
[xUnit] [INFO] - The total number of tests for this category exceeds the specified 'unstable' threshold value.
[xUnit] [INFO] - Setting the build status to FAILURE
[xUnit] [INFO] - Stopping recording.
New case: I commented the line currentBuild.result = 'FAILED' and I added a syntax error in the test class. The build is successed even with the COMPILATION ERROR and it skipped the tests:
[xUnit] [INFO] - Starting to record.
[xUnit] [INFO] - Processing JUnit
[xUnit] [INFO] - [JUnit] - No test report file(s) were found with the pattern '**/target/surefire-reports/TEST-*.xml' relative to '/var/lib/jenkins/workspace/jenkins-failure_master-EHKMAGGDJWHA7FNGHQYY2VJNJHBX2RXI3XJY4NU5EB2PYT4ERTZQ' for the testing framework 'JUnit'. Did you enter a pattern relative to the correct directory? Did you generate the result report(s) for 'JUnit'?
[xUnit] [WARNING] - No test reports found for the metric 'JUnit' with the resolved pattern '**/target/surefire-reports/TEST-*.xml'.
[xUnit] [INFO] - Skipping the metric tool processing.
[xUnit] [INFO] - There are errors when processing test results.
[xUnit] [INFO] - Skipping tests recording.

Answer 1

From Reporting test results and storing artifacts (declarative pipeline):
pipeline {
agent { docker "java" }
stages {
stage("build") {
steps {
sh 'mvn clean install -Dmaven.test.failure.ignore=true'
}
}
}
post {
always {
archive "target/**/*"
junit 'target/surefire-reports/*.xml'
}
}
}
Use -Dmaven.test.failure.ignore=true to prevent failing the build on test failures. The junit step then collects the test results and marks the build as unstable.
This is also how it is done under the covers when using a non-pipeline Maven job, see JENKINS-24655.