@DirtiesContext

@DirtiesContext indicates that the underlying Spring ApplicationContext has been dirtied during the execution of a test (that is, the test modified or corrupted it in some manner — for example, by changing the state of a singleton bean) and should be closed. When an application context is marked as dirty, it is removed from the testing framework’s cache and closed. As a consequence, the underlying Spring container is rebuilt for any subsequent test that requires a context with the same configuration metadata.

You can use @DirtiesContext as both a class-level and a method-level annotation within the same class or class hierarchy. In such scenarios, the ApplicationContext is marked as dirty before or after any such annotated method as well as before or after the current test class, depending on the configured methodMode and classMode. When @DirtiesContext is declared at both the class level and the method level, the configured modes from both annotations will be honored. For example, if the class mode is set to BEFORE_EACH_TEST_METHOD and the method mode is set to AFTER_METHOD, the context will be marked as dirty both before and after the given test method.

The following examples explain when the context would be dirtied for various configuration scenarios:

  • Before the current test class, when declared on a class with class mode set to BEFORE_CLASS.

    • Java

    • Kotlin

    @DirtiesContext(classMode = BEFORE_CLASS) (1)
class FreshContextTests {
	// some tests that require a new Spring container
}
    1 Dirty the context before the current test class. 
    @DirtiesContext(classMode = BEFORE_CLASS) (1)
class FreshContextTests {
	// some tests that require a new Spring container
}
    1 Dirty the context before the current test class.

  • After the current test class, when declared on a class with class mode set to AFTER_CLASS (i.e., the default class mode).

    • Java

    • Kotlin

    @DirtiesContext (1)
class ContextDirtyingTests {
	// some tests that result in the Spring container being dirtied
}
    1 Dirty the context after the current test class. 
    @DirtiesContext (1)
class ContextDirtyingTests {
	// some tests that result in the Spring container being dirtied
}
    1 Dirty the context after the current test class.

  • Before each test method in the current test class, when declared on a class with class mode set to BEFORE_EACH_TEST_METHOD.

    • Java

    • Kotlin

    @DirtiesContext(classMode = BEFORE_EACH_TEST_METHOD) (1)
class FreshContextTests {
	// some tests that require a new Spring container
}
    1 Dirty the context before each test method. 
    @DirtiesContext(classMode = BEFORE_EACH_TEST_METHOD) (1)
class FreshContextTests {
	// some tests that require a new Spring container
}
    1 Dirty the context before each test method.

  • After each test method in the current test class, when declared on a class with class mode set to AFTER_EACH_TEST_METHOD.

    • Java

    • Kotlin

    @DirtiesContext(classMode = AFTER_EACH_TEST_METHOD) (1)
class ContextDirtyingTests {
	// some tests that result in the Spring container being dirtied
}
    1 Dirty the context after each test method. 
    @DirtiesContext(classMode = AFTER_EACH_TEST_METHOD) (1)
class ContextDirtyingTests {
	// some tests that result in the Spring container being dirtied
}
    1 Dirty the context after each test method.

  • Before the current test, when declared on a method with the method mode set to BEFORE_METHOD.

    • Java

    • Kotlin

    @DirtiesContext(methodMode = BEFORE_METHOD) (1)
@Test
void testProcessWhichRequiresFreshAppCtx() {
	// some logic that requires a new Spring container
}
    1 Dirty the context before the current test method. 
    @DirtiesContext(methodMode = BEFORE_METHOD) (1)
@Test
fun testProcessWhichRequiresFreshAppCtx() {
	// some logic that requires a new Spring container
}
    1 Dirty the context before the current test method.

  • After the current test, when declared on a method with the method mode set to AFTER_METHOD (i.e., the default method mode).

    • Java

    • Kotlin

    @DirtiesContext (1)
@Test
void testProcessWhichDirtiesAppCtx() {
	// some logic that results in the Spring container being dirtied
}
    1 Dirty the context after the current test method. 
    @DirtiesContext (1)
@Test
fun testProcessWhichDirtiesAppCtx() {
	// some logic that results in the Spring container being dirtied
}
    1 Dirty the context after the current test method.

If you use @DirtiesContext in a test whose context is configured as part of a context hierarchy with @ContextHierarchy, you can use the hierarchyMode flag to control how the context cache is cleared. By default, an exhaustive algorithm is used to clear the context cache, including not only the current level but also all other context hierarchies that share an ancestor context common to the current test. All ApplicationContext instances that reside in a sub-hierarchy of the common ancestor context are removed from the context cache and closed. If the exhaustive algorithm is overkill for a particular use case, you can specify the simpler current level algorithm, as the following example shows.

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@ContextHierarchy({
	@ContextConfiguration("/parent-config.xml"),
	@ContextConfiguration("/child-config.xml")
})
class BaseTests {
	// class body...
}

class ExtendedTests extends BaseTests {

	@Test
	@DirtiesContext(hierarchyMode = CURRENT_LEVEL) (1)
	void test() {
		// some logic that results in the child context being dirtied
	}
}
1 Use the current-level algorithm. 
@ContextHierarchy(
	ContextConfiguration("/parent-config.xml"),
	ContextConfiguration("/child-config.xml"))
open class BaseTests {
	// class body...
}

class ExtendedTests : BaseTests() {

	@Test
	@DirtiesContext(hierarchyMode = CURRENT_LEVEL) (1)
	fun test() {
		// some logic that results in the child context being dirtied
	}
}
1 Use the current-level algorithm.

For further details regarding the EXHAUSTIVE and CURRENT_LEVEL algorithms, see the DirtiesContext.HierarchyMode javadoc.