How to run TestNG from command line

If you are using Maven, you can run it from the cmd line really easy, cd into the directory with the testng.xml (or whatever yours is called, the xml that has all the classes that will run) and run this cmd:

mvn clean test -DsuiteXmlFile=testng.xml 

This page explains it in much more detail: How to run testng.xml from Maven command line

I didn't know it mattered if you were using Maven or not so I didn't include it in my search terms, I thought I would mention it here in case others are in the same situation as I was.

Prepare MANIFEST.MF file with the following content

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Main-Class: org.testng.TestNG

Pack all test and dependency classes in the same jar, say tests.jar

jar cmf MANIFEST.MF tests.jar -C folder-with-classes/ .

Notice trailing ".", replace folder-with-classes/ with proper folder name or path.

Create testng.xml with content like below

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE suite SYSTEM "http://testng.org/testng-1.0.dtd" >
<suite name="Tests" verbose="5">
  <test name="Test1">
    <classes>
      <class name="com.example.yourcompany.qa.Test1"/>
    </classes>
  </test>  
</suite>

Replace com.example.yourcompany.qa.Test1 with path to your Test class.

Run your tests

java -jar tests.jar testng.xml

Below command works for me. Provided that all required jars including testng jar kept inside lib.

java -cp "lib/*" org.testng.TestNG testng.xml

After gone throug the various post, this worked fine for me doing on IntelliJ Idea:

java -cp "./lib/*;Path to your test.class"  org.testng.TestNG testng.xml

Here is my directory structure:

/lib
  -- all jar including testng.jar
/out
  --/production/Example1/test.class
/src
 -- test.java
testing.xml

So execute by this command:

java -cp "./lib/*;C:\Users\xyz\IdeaProjects\Example1\out\production\Example1" org.testng.TestNG testng.xml

My project directory Example1 is in the path:

C:\Users\xyz\IdeaProjects\

If none of the above answers work, you can run the test in IDE, get the class path and use it in your command. Ex: If you are using Intellij IDEA, you can find it at the top of the console(screenshot below).

Clicking on the highlighted part expands and displays the complete class path.

you need to remove the references to jars inside the folder: JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition 2019.1.3

java -cp "path_copied" org.testng.TestNG testng.xml

I tried everything on this post but it turns out I was missing a jar file. Here's my solution:

Add guice-4.2.2.jar to your jar files if you are getting the following error. If you are using maven then add the following dependency.

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.inject</groupId>
    <artifactId>guice</artifactId>
    <version>4.1.0</version>
</dependency>


Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/google/inject/Stage
        at org.testng.internal.Configuration.<init>(Configuration.java:33)
        at org.testng.TestNG.init(TestNG.java:216)
        at org.testng.TestNG.<init>(TestNG.java:200)
        at org.testng.TestNG.privateMain(TestNG.java:1312)
        at org.testng.TestNG.main(TestNG.java:1304)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.google.inject.Stage
        at java.base/jdk.internal.loader.BuiltinClassLoader.loadClass(BuiltinClassLoader.java:602)
        at java.base/jdk.internal.loader.ClassLoaders$AppClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoaders.java:178)
        at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:522)
        ... 5 more

Try below command

java -cp bin\;jars\* org.testng.TestNG testng.xml

where bin has the compiled classes of your projects and jars folder contains the necessary jars to execute your testng.xml file

Make sure not to use bin\* instead of bin\ as it will lead you to errors.

Now necessary jars will be your TestNG jar, jcommander jar, and the bsh jar, you can download these jars from here

Your project structure would be something like below -

Project
    |_ _ bin
      | _ _ your compiled classes
    |_ _ jars
      |_ _ testng.jar
      |_ _ jcommander.jar
      |_ _ bsh.jar
    |_ _ testng.xml

I have also written an article which explains how to run a testng.xml file while making a new project or in an existing project. Hope you find your solution in the article.

Add this plugin if your project pom.xml

 <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.19.1</version>
            <configuration>
                <reportsDirectory>./test-output</reportsDirectory>
                <suiteXmlFiles>
                    <!-- pass testng.xml files as argument from command line -->
                    <suiteXmlFile>${suiteXmlFile}</suiteXmlFile>
                </suiteXmlFiles>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

after that use following command to pass the testng xml location:

mvn clean test -Dsurefire.suiteXmlFiles=/path/to/testng.xml

testng.xml should include details about test classes or packages to run. Here is an example of content in testng.xml file:

You can follow this link to create one https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/testng-example-to-create-testng-xml/