Prevent IntelliJ from compiling src-Classes when Unit-Testing

Question

I have the following Project Structure

/
   src/  # src-files for the app
    org.mayapp.main.Main/
 test/ # unit-tests
    org.myapp.test.main.MainTestSuite/

When I want to run my Unit-Tests, e.g. org.myapp.test.main.MainTestSuite, IntelliJ always tries to compile all the packages in the whole project.

I want to prevent this, because I am currently developing on a part of my app and still want to run the Unit-Tests on other parts of the app.

Is there a way to prevent IntelliJ from compiling the whole project before running the Unit-Tests?

Answer 1

When you run a test in IntelliJ you'll see it adds a run target for that test, see Run -> Edit Configurations under the JUnit section.

If you look at the run target for the test you'll see there's a Before Launch section that by default has Make selected. If you unselect Make IntelliJ won't make/compile before the test is run.

Remember to save the run target as IntelliJ creates new ones as you run different tests.