When running the unit tests in ejb3-0 module of timeout, I see this SecurityException:

java.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.io.FilePermission /tmp/surefire8958002439537574919tmp read)
at java.security.AccessControlContext.checkPermission(AccessControlContext.java:323)
at java.security.AccessController.checkPermission(AccessController.java:546)
at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkPermission(SecurityManager.java:532)
at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkRead(SecurityManager.java:871)
at java.io.File.exists(File.java:731)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.SurefireBooter.loadProperties(SurefireBooter.java:795)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.SurefireBooter.setSystemProperties(SurefireBooter.java:814)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.SurefireBooter.main(SurefireBooter.java:915)
access: access allowed (java.lang.RuntimePermission exitVM.1)

The java.policy file (only the relevant section) is as follows:

// for Maven
grant codeBase "file:${maven.repo.local}/-" {
permission java.security.AllPermission;
};

The maven.repo.local system property is set as follows in the timeout pom:

<properties>
<!-- per default maven.repo.local is null, so set up a sensible default -->
<maven.repo.local>${user.home}/.m2/repository</maven.repo.local>
</properties>

and then used in surefire plugin as follows:

<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<argLine>-Djava.security.manager -Djava.security.policy=${basedir}/src/test/resources/java.policy -Djava.security.debug=policy,failure,access -Dmaven.repo.local=${maven.repo.local}</argLine>
</configuration>
</plugin>

On my system, the maven local repository is pointed to a custom path through settings.xml:

<localRepository>/opt/maven/repository</localRepository>

which causes this failure (since the codebase of the surefire jars doesn't match to $[user.home}/.m2/repository.

Had a quick chat on #maven for a possible alternative to maven.repo.local which takes into account the settings.xml and found ${settings.localRepository}. Here's the relevant IRC discussion:

(08:17:12 IST) Jaikiran: quick question about maven.repo.local system property that maven sets
(08:17:18 IST) Jaikiran: i am using 2.0.9 maven
(08:17:44 IST) Jaikiran: and in my settings.xml file i have set a custom value for localRepository element
(08:18:02 IST) Jaikiran: i.e. instead of /home/me/.m2/repository i point it to /blah/maven/repo
(08:18:17 IST) bsnyder left the room (quit: Ping timeout: 20 seconds).
(08:18:17 IST) bsnyder_ is now known as bsnyder
(08:18:38 IST) Jaikiran: but when i use ${maven.repo.local} property in surefire plugin configuration, i see that it passes /home/me/.m2/repository as the value
(08:18:44 IST) Jaikiran: instead of the custom one
(08:18:48 IST) Jaikiran: is this a known issue?
(08:19:04 IST) bentmann: no, maven simply doesn't set maven.repo.local
(08:19:12 IST) bentmann: it's a property the user may set
(08:19:42 IST) Jaikiran: hmm, then i am confused
(08:19:45 IST) Jaikiran: let me pastebin my config
(08:20:24 IST) Jaikiran: line4 http://pastebin.com/Xbe67YDG
(08:20:38 IST) Jaikiran: then in the testcase, i just do a system.getproperty for that prop
(08:20:50 IST) Jaikiran: and i get /home/me/.m2/repository
(08:22:56 IST) Jaikiran: bentmann: ignore me, in the parent pom i found this http://pastebin.com/Nr6qjTXn
(08:23:03 IST) Jaikiran: sorry about the noise
(08:23:32 IST) bentmann: you should try ${settings.localRepository}
(08:23:43 IST) ***Jaikiran gives it a try
(08:23:56 IST) bentmann: inside the surefire plugin config I mean
(08:25:00 IST) tobrien left the room (quit: tobrien).
benji bentmann
(08:25:53 IST) Jaikiran: bentmann: excellent! that worked thanks
(08:26:08 IST) Jaikiran: ~bentmann++
(08:26:21 IST) bentmann: just be warned that ${settings.*} only works inside plugin configuration, not in the rest of the POM
(08:27:01 IST) Jaikiran: i see.
(08:27:12 IST) Jaikiran: luckily for me, that's where i want it