CAS Build Process

This page documents the steps that a CAS developer/contributor should take for building a CAS server locally.

Usage Warning!

If you are about to deploy and configure CAS, you are in the WRONG PLACE! To deploy CAS locally, use the WAR Overlay method described in the project documentation for a specific CAS version. Cloning, downloading and building the CAS codebase from source is ONLY required if you wish to contribute to the development of the project.

Source Checkout

The following shell commands may be used to grab the source from the repository:

1

git clone --recursive git@github.com:apereo/cas.git cas-server

Or a quicker clone:

1
2

git clone --recursive --depth=1 --single-branch --branch=master git@github.com:apereo/cas.git cas-server
# git fetch --unshallow

For a successful clone, you will need to have set up SSH keys for your account on Github. If that is not an option, you may clone the CAS repository under https via https://github.com/apereo/cas.git.

You may also need to update submodules linked to the CAS repository. Newer versions of Git will do this automatically, but older versions will require you to explicitly tell git to download the contents of submodules:

1

git submodule update --init --recursive

Build

The following shell commands may be used to build the source:

1
2

cd cas-server
git checkout master

When done, you may build the codebase via the following command:

1

./gradlew build --parallel -x test -x javadoc -x check --build-cache --configure-on-demand

Gradle Wrapper & Gum

Rather than using the Gradle Wrapper directly, you might want to use Gum, which is able to auto-detect the location of the Gradle Wrapper anywhere in the project structure.

The following commandline boolean flags are supported by the build and can be passed in form of system properties via -D:

• You can use -x <task> to entirely skip/ignore a phase in the build. (i.e. -x test, -x check).
• If you have no need to let Gradle resolve/update dependencies and new module versions for you, you can take advantage of the --offline flag when you build which tends to make the build go a lot faster.
• Using the Gradle daemon also is a big help. It should be enabled by default.
• Enabling Gradle’s build cache via --build-cache can also significantly improve build times.

Tasks

Available build tasks can be found using the command ./gradlew tasks.

IDE Setup

CAS development may be carried out using any modern IDE that supports Gradle.

IntelliJ IDEA

The following IDEA settings for Gradle may also be useful:

Note

You should always use the latest version of the Intellij IDEA.

Additionally, you may need to customize the VM settings to ensure the development environment can load and index the codebase:

1
2
3
4
5

-Xms2g
-Xmx8g

-XX:+UseStringDeduplication
-XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled

The key point for making IntelliJ IDEA handle the project nicely is to give it lots of memory (either by specifying the -Xmx8g VM options or in the IDE menu Help -> Change Memory Settings).

If you’re still running IntelliJ with a JDK 8, you may require these options instead:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28

-server
-Xms1g
-Xmx8g
-Xss16m
-XX:NewRatio=3

-XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=512m
-XX:+UseCompressedOops
-XX:SoftRefLRUPolicyMSPerMB=50

-XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled
-XX:+CMSParallelRemarkEnabled
-XX:CMSInitiatingOccupancyFraction=65
-XX:+CMSScavengeBeforeRemark
-XX:+UseCMSInitiatingOccupancyOnly

-XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=1
-XX:SurvivorRatio=8
-XX:+UseCodeCacheFlushing
-XX:+AggressiveOpts
-XX:-TraceClassUnloading
-XX:+AlwaysPreTouch
-XX:+TieredCompilation

-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
-Dsun.io.useCanonCaches=false
-Djsse.enableSNIExtension=true
-ea

Plugins

The following plugins may prove useful during development:

• Checkstyle
• FindBugs
• Lombok

Once you have installed the Lombok plugin, you will also need to ensure Annotation Processing is turned on. You may need to restart IDEA in order for changes to take full effect.

Note that the CAS-provided Checkstyle rules can be imported into idea to automate a number of formatting rules specially related to package imports and layouts. Once imported, the rules should look something like the below screenshot:

Running CAS

It is possible to run the CAS web application directly from IDEA by creating a Run Configuration that roughly matches the following screenshot:

This setup allows the developer to run the CAS web application via an embedded servlet container.

Eclipse

For Eclipse, execute the following commands:

1
2

cd cas-server
./gradlew eclipse

Then, import the project into eclipse using “General\Existing Projects into Workspace” and choose “Add Gradle Nature” from the “Configure” context menu of the project.

YMMV

We have had a less than ideal experience with Eclipse and its support for Gradle-based projects. While time changes everything and docs grow old, it is likely that you may experience issues with how Eclipse manages to resolve Gradle dependencies and build the project. In the end, you're welcome to use what works best for you as the ultimate goal is to find the appropriate tooling to build and contribute to CAS.

Testing Modules

Please see this page to learn more about the testing process and guidelines.

Embedded Containers

The CAS project comes with a number of built-in modules that are pre-configured with embedded servlet containers such as Apache Tomcat, Jetty, etc for the server web application, the management web application and others. These modules are found in the webapp folder of the CAS project.

Configure SSL

The thekeystore file must include the SSL private/public keys that are issued for your CAS server domain. You will need to use the keytool command of the JDK to create the keystore and the certificate.

The following commands may serve as an example:

1
2

keytool -genkey -alias cas -keyalg RSA -validity 999 \
    -keystore /etc/cas/thekeystore -ext san=dns:$REPLACE_WITH_FULL_MACHINE_NAME

Note that the validity parameter allows you to specify, in the number of days, how long the certificate should be valid for. The longer the time period, the less likely you are to need to recreate it. To recreate it, you’d need to delete the old one and then follow these instructions again. You may also need to provide the Subject Alternative Name field, which can be done with keytool via -ext san=dns:$REPLACE_WITH_FULL_MACHINE_NAME.

The response will look something like this:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Enter keystore password: changeit
Re-enter new password: changeit
What is your first and last name?
  [Unknown]:  $REPLACE_WITH_FULL_MACHINE_NAME (i.e. mymachine.domain.edu)
What is the name of your organizational unit?
  [Unknown]:  Test
What is the name of your organization?
  [Unknown]:  Test
What is the name of your City or Locality?
  [Unknown]:  Test
What is the name of your State or Province?
  [Unknown]:  Test
What is the two-letter country code for this unit?
  [Unknown]:  US
Is CN=$FULL_MACHINE_NAME, OU=Test, O=Test, L=Test, ST=Test, C=US correct?
  [no]:  yes

In your /etc/hosts file (on Windows: C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts), you may also need to add the following entry:

1

127.0.0.1 mymachine.domain.edu

The certificate exported out of your keystore needs to also be imported into the Java platform’s global keystore:

1
2
3
4
5

# Export the certificate into a file
keytool -export -file /etc/cas/config/cas.crt -keystore /etc/cas/thekeystore -alias cas

# Import the certificate into the global keystore
sudo keytool -import -file /etc/cas/config/cas.crt -alias cas -keystore $JAVA_HOME/lib/security/cacerts

…where JAVA_HOME is where you have the JDK installed (i.e /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk[version].jdk/Contents/Home).

On Windows, Administration right should be granted to the console instead of sudo, and $JAVA_HOME/lib/security/cacerts should be changed to "%JAVA_HOME%/lib/security/cacerts" instead.

Deploy

Execute the following command:

1
2
3

cd webapp/cas-server-webapp-tomcat

../../gradlew build bootRun --parallel --offline --configure-on-demand --build-cache --stacktrace

The response will look something like this:

1
2
3

...
INFO [org.apereo.cas.web.CasWebApplication] - <Started CasWebApplication in 21.893 seconds (JVM running for 36.888)>
...

By default CAS will be available at https://mymachine.domain.edu:8443/cas

Remote Debugging

The embedded container instance is pre-configured to listen to debugger requests on port 5000 provided you specify the enableRemoteDebugging parameter. For external container deployments, such as Apache Tomcat, the following example shows what needs configuring in the bin/startup.sh|bat file:

1
2
3

export JPDA_ADDRESS=5000
export JPDA_TRANSPORT=dt_socket
bin/catalina.sh jpda start

When you’re done, create a remote debugger configuration in your IDE that connects to this port and you will be able to step into the code.

Manual Submodule Testing

Please see this page to learn more about the testing process and guidelines.

Sample Build Aliases

Below are some examples of convenient build aliases for quickly running a local cas server from the project or installing dependencies from the project for use in the cas-overlay.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

# Adjust the cas alias to the location of cas project folder
alias cas='cd ~/Workspace/cas'

# Run CAS with module selections
# $> bc oidc,gauth
function bc() {
  clear
  cas
  cd webapp/cas-server-webapp-tomcat
  casmodules="$1"
  if [ ! -z "$casmodules" ] ; then
    echo "Loading CAS Modules: ${casmodules}"
  fi

  # Could also use: gm -b ./build.gradle
  ../../gradlew build bootRun \
    --configure-on-demand --build-cache \
    --parallel -x test -x javadoc -x check -DenableRemoteDebugging=true \
    --stacktrace -DskipNestedConfigMetadataGen=true \
    -DremoteDebuggingSuspend=false \
    -DcasModules=${casmodules}
}

# Install JARs/WARs for use with a CAS overlay project
alias bci='clear; cas; \
    ./gradlew clean build publishToMavenLocal \ 
    --configure-on-demand \
    --build-cache --parallel \
    -x test -x javadoc -x check --stacktrace \
    -DskipNestedConfigMetadataGen=true \
    -DskipBootifulArtifact=true'