Contents

Introduction

This article will show how to set the maximum time a test can run. It is helpful for cases where you want to test if a method does not run too long.

Junit 5 Timeout examples

You can use the @Timeout annotation if you are using Junit5. The annotation takes a Long as default, which is the number of seconds a test may take. However, it is also possible to pass a unit of time to the @Timeout annotation; this makes it clear to the reader how long a test is allowed to run.

In the following example, you can see both ways of using the @Timeout annotation.

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@Test
@Timeout(value = 10, unit = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
void usingTimeOutAnnotation(){
    try {
        Thread.sleep(110);
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
        throw new RuntimeException(e);
    }
}

@Test
@Timeout(value = 1) // in seconds
void testDefaultValueForTimeUnit(){
    try {
        Thread.sleep(1001);
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
        throw new RuntimeException(e);
    }
}

Setting a timeout for every test inside a class

When you apply the @Timeout annotation at the class level, the timeout will be set for every test inside the class.

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@Timeout(value = 10, unit = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
public class TimeOuts {
    
    @Test
    void usingTimeOutAnnotation(){
        try {
            Thread.sleep(110);
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }

}

Using Assertions

You can also use Assertions to ensure a method runs within a time limit. In the following example, we use Assertions.assertTimeout. This method has a parameter for the Duration and a Lambda, which has to finish within the given duration.

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Test
void test(){
    Assertions.assertTimeout(Duration.ofMillis(20), () -> Thread.sleep(100));
}

Junit 4 Timeout examples

If you are using Junit 4, you can't use the @Timeout annotation, but there are other ways to set the timeout on a test method.

Using the @Test annotation

With Junit 4, you pass the number of milliseconds a test can run directly to the @Test annotation. In the following example, the test will timeout after 10 milliseconds.

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@Test(timeout = 10) // in milliseconds
public void useTestAnnotationValue() throws InterruptedException {
    Thread.sleep(11);
}

Using a Rule

If you want to apply a timeout to all your tests in a class, you can use a @Rule. In the following example, we set a timeout of 20 milliseconds for each test inside the class.

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public class TimeOuts {

    @Rule
    public Timeout timeout = new Timeout(20, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);

    @Test
    public void useRuleTimeoutValue() throws InterruptedException {
        Thread.sleep(100);
    }

}

@Test(timeout = 10) timeout value inside the annotations will be ignored when used with an @Rule. Instead, the timeout from the @Rule will be used.

Conclusion

In the article, we saw how we could set a timeout on a test and at the class level. We did this for JUnit 5 and 4.

Questions, comments, concerns?

Have a question or comment about the content? Feel free to reach out!

JUnit 5 and 4 Timeout examples