Ant JUnit Task Fails Before Running the Test - ant

Question

I have the following ant target:
<path id="test-classpath">
<fileset dir="lib">
<include name="*.jar" />
</fileset>
<pathelement path="bin/release" />
</path>
<target name="run-test">
<junit printsummary="yes" haltonfailure="yes" fork="true">
<formatter type="failure"/>
<test name="someNamespace.someTest" />
<classpath refid="test-classpath" />
</junit>
</target>
When I try to run it from the command-line, I am getting the following output:
>ant run-test
Buildfile: ...\build.xml
[echo] 2016-03-30 20:29:29
run-test:
[junit] Exception in thread "main" java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
[junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.FormatterElement.createFormatter(FormatterElement.java:343)
[junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.FormatterElement.createFormatter(FormatterElement.java:257)
[junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.transferFormatters(JUnitTestRunner.java:1085)
[junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.launch(JUnitTestRunner.java:1180)
[junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.main(JUnitTestRunner.java:1033)
[junit] Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
[junit] at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
[junit] at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
[junit] at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
[junit] at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
[junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.FormatterElement.createFormatter(FormatterElement.java:337)
[junit] ... 4 more
[junit] Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
[junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.FailureRecorder.setProject(FailureRecorder.java:153)
[junit] ... 9 more
BUILD FAILED
...\build.xml:171: Using loader AntClassLoader[
C:\Program Files (x86)\apache-ant-1.9.6\lib\ant-launcher.jar;
C:\Program Files (x86)\apache-ant-1.9.6\lib\ant.jar;
C:\Program Files (x86)\apache-ant-1.9.6\lib\ant-junit.jar;
C:\Program Files (x86)\apache-ant-1.9.6\lib\ant-junit4.jar;
...\lib\commons-math3-3.5.jar;
...\lib\hamcrest-core-1.3.jar;
...\lib\junit-4.11.jar;
...\lib\log4j-api-2.5.jar;
...\lib\log4j-core-2.5.jar;
...\bin\release] on class org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.FailureRecorder:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: junit/framework/TestListener
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:760)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:467)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:73)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:368)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:362)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:361)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:760)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:467)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:73)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:368)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:362)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:361)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
at org.apache.tools.ant.AntClassLoader.findBaseClass(AntClassLoader.java:1407)
at org.apache.tools.ant.AntClassLoader.loadClass(AntClassLoader.java:1085)
at org.apache.tools.ant.util.SplitClassLoader.loadClass(SplitClassLoader.java:58)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:348)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.FormatterElement.createFormatter(FormatterElement.java:287)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTask.logVmExit(JUnitTask.java:1854)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTask.logVmCrash(JUnitTask.java:1818)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTask.executeAsForked(JUnitTask.java:1295)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTask.execute(JUnitTask.java:1024)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTask.executeOrQueue(JUnitTask.java:2105)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTask.execute(JUnitTask.java:832)
at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.execute(UnknownElement.java:293)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor4.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at org.apache.tools.ant.dispatch.DispatchUtils.execute(DispatchUtils.java:106)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Task.perform(Task.java:348)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Target.execute(Target.java:435)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Target.performTasks(Target.java:456)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeSortedTargets(Project.java:1405)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTarget(Project.java:1376)
at org.apache.tools.ant.helper.DefaultExecutor.executeTargets(DefaultExecutor.java:41)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTargets(Project.java:1260)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.runBuild(Main.java:853)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.startAnt(Main.java:235)
at org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher.run(Launcher.java:285)
at org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:112)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: junit.framework.TestListener
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:381)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
... 51 more
Total time: 3 seconds
The test runs successfully within Eclipse Mars (4.5.2). Does anyone know why this would be happening, and how I can get my JUnit test to run through ant? I am using JUnit 4.11, and have tried ant v1.9.3 and v1.9.6 (the above output was generated from ant v1.9.6).
EDIT
I also tested using ant v1.8.4, per the recommendations in the comments, but that doesn't have any effect on the resulting crash (other than the version numbers of the jar files).

Answer 1

According to this question - Class not found with Ant, Ivy and JUnit - error in build.xml? - there is a bug in ant 1.9+ and you should try ant 1.8.4.

Answer 2

I finally figured out what the problem was. My JUnit task classpath was incorrect, as I forgot to include the location of my test suite class. Once I corrected the classpath, everything worked as expected. Still, I feel that this is a bug that should be addressed by either the Ant or JUnit teams. A message such as, "Class XXX could not be loaded" would have been much more helpful.