Debugging Grails Integration Tests

Running all unit/integration tests consumes a lot of time, so most of the time during development, you probably run single integration tests from the command line:

grails test-app -integration ClassUnderTest

If you want to debug an integration test to find out why a test is failing, follow the steps described below:

In IntelliJ, do the following:

• Create new run configuration (Edit configurations -> Add new configuration -> Remote)
• Enter name for the configuration
• Deselect "Make"
• Set brakepoint in your test class to make the debugger stop at this point.

Using the command line, run the single integration test using "grails-debug" instead of "grails". This will start grails in debugging mode (it will open a remote debug port).

grails-debug test-app -integration ClassUnderTest

Run your remote debugging session in IntelliJ by pressing on the debug button next to your run config...

If you use a different IDE like Eclipse or Netbeans, remote debugging should be as easy as described above.