[Feature]: JUnit Jupiter extension for reuse of containers #6401

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1. hendrikebbers

   added

   type/feature

   on Jan 10, 2023
2. hendrikebbers

   changed the title [-][Feature]: JUnit Jupiter Tag support[/-] [+][Feature]: JUnit Jupiter extension for reuse of containers[/+] on Jan 10, 2023
3. kiview commented on Jan 10, 2023

   

   kiview

   on Jan 10, 2023

   Member

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   The use case makes a lot of sense, but I probably don't see this feature like this going into our JUnit Jupiter extension for now, because of a conceptual overlap with Reusable Containers.

   It looks a little bit like dependency injections for containers to me. While I understand that it is a useful feature, I have a gut feeling that it might end up more complex as expected. I'd like to discuss if your use case can be implemented with our existing reuse capabilities and if not, and we think exploring this idea is worth a shot, doing it initially in a dedicated repo and as a dedicated extension might make more sense, to have more experimentation freedom to get it right.
4. lennart-bos commented on Aug 16, 2024

   

   lennart-bos

   on Aug 16, 2024

   Last edited by lennart-bos

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   I have a similar request. I made it work by using JUnit suites. I want to reuse containers across all tests within a @Suite, without impacting single test runs, i.e. always stop all containers. I made this work, albeit ugly, by adding the following to the abstract superclass of each test:

     public static final SomeContainer CONTAINER_1 = new SomeContainer().withReuse(true);
     public static final SomeOtherContainer CONTAINER_2 = new SomeOtherContainer().withReuse(true);
     public static final YetOtherContainer CONTAINER_3 = new YetOtherContainer().withReuse(true);
   
     @BeforeAll
     static void startContainers() {
       CONTAINER_1.start();
       CONTAINER_2.start();
       CONTAINER_3.start();
     }
   
     @AfterAll
     static void stopContainers() {
       if (!TestcontainersConfiguration.getInstance().environmentSupportsReuse()) {
         CONTAINER_1.stop();
         CONTAINER_2.stop();
         CONTAINER_3.stop();
       }
     }
   

   And the following to the suite:

     @BeforeSuite
     static void beforeSuite() {
       TestContainersUtil.setReuseEnabled(true);
     }
   
     @AfterSuite
     static void afterSuite() {
       CONTAINER_1.stop();
       CONTAINER_2.stop();
       CONTAINER_3.stop();
   
       TestContainersUtil.setReuseEnabled(false);
     }
   

   Where the util is like this:

   public class TestContainersUtil {
   
     private static final File PATH =
         new File(System.getProperty("user.home"), ".testcontainers.properties");
   
     public static void setReuseEnabled(boolean reuseEnabled) {
       try {
         Properties properties = new Properties();
         properties.load(new FileInputStream(PATH));
         properties.setProperty("testcontainers.reuse.enable", String.valueOf(reuseEnabled));
         properties.store(new FileOutputStream(PATH), null);
       } catch (IOException e) {
         throw new RuntimeException(e);
       }
     }
   }
   
   

   So, when running the suite, it starts the containers as soon as the first test starts and doesn't stop them after each test, only after the whole suite. When running a single test, it starts/stops the containers before/after that test.

   I would prefer a more elegant way. Even just being able to simply control testcontainers.reuse.enable using System.setProperty would be nice.
5. codomposer commented on Nov 3, 2025

   

   codomposer

   on Nov 3, 2025

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   @hendrikebbers I've implemented this feature