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Upgrading org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-test 3 to 4

Breaking3.5.16 → 4.1.2Breaking7Security2Platform1Deprecated8New313Changed937Fixed466Other272

Full comparisonBack to org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-test
BreakingUpgrade verdict

7 breaking changes and a platform requirement change and 2 security fixes.

In plain terms
  • If your project uses Protobuf and gRPC with Gradle, the gRPC setup is no longer applied automatically. You must opt in explicitly.
  • A library that Spring Boot's Jetty support used to pull in automatically is no longer included. If your own code uses classes from it, you must add it yourself.
  • Removes support for the deprecated layertools jar mode.
  • Removes support for deprecated Logback properties.
Must act Top 5 of 18 that need code or config changes

org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-test publishes an official migration guide for version 4. It covers more than the release notes do.

A migration guide ↗

Installs 49 packages in all (was 48).

What you must change

Breaking7
Spring Boot's Gradle plugin no longer automatically configures gRPC when the Protobuf plugin is applied.
protobufgrpcprotoc-gen-grpc-java
4.1.1GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Removes the unused dependency on org.eclipse.jetty.ee11:jetty-ee11-servlets from spring-boot-jetty.
spring-boot-jettyorg.eclipse.jetty.ee11:jetty-ee11-servlets
4.1.0-M1GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Removes support for the deprecated layertools jar mode.
layertools
4.1.0-M1GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Removes support for deprecated Logback properties.
Logback
4.1.0-M1GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Removes the unused dependency on org.eclipse.jetty.ee11:jetty-ee11-servlets from spring-boot-jetty.
org.eclipse.jetty.ee11:jetty-ee11-servletsspring-boot-jetty
4.0.2GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Renames spring-boot-starter-kotlin-serialization to spring-boot-starter-kotlinx-serialization-json and its test starter to spring-boot-starter-kotlinx-serialization-json-test.
spring-boot-starter-kotlin-serializationspring-boot-starter-kotlinx-serialization-jsonspring-boot-starter-kotlin-serialization-testspring-boot-starter-kotlinx-serialization-json-test
4.0.1GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Using TestRestTemplate now requires a dependency on spring-boot-restclient.
TestRestTemplatespring-boot-restclient
4.0.1GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Security2
Applies HTML escaping to the timestamp attribute in the Whitelabel error page.
4.1.0GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Applies HTML escaping to the timestamp attribute in the Whitelabel error page.
4.0.7GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Platform1
Upgrades to jOOQ 3.20 and requires Java 21 to use it.
jOOQ
4.1.0-M1GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source

Deprecations to plan for

Deprecated8
SpringJtaPlatform is now deprecated as of 4.1.0-M3.
SpringJtaPlatform
4.1.0GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Deprecates OpenTelemetry's ZipkinSpanExporter, with support to be removed in Spring Boot 4.2.
ZipkinSpanExporter
4.1.0-M3GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Deprecates LiveReload support for removal.
4.1.0-M3GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Deprecates RootUriTemplateHandler in favor of DefaultUriBuilderFactory.
RootUriTemplateHandlerDefaultUriBuilderFactory
4.1.0-M3GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Delays removal of Jackson 2 support until 4.3 at the earliest.
4.1.0-M2GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Deprecates Derby support since Apache Derby is retired.
Derby
4.1.0-M1GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Deprecates OpenTelemetry's ZipkinSpanExporter, with support to be removed in Spring Boot 4.2.
ZipkinSpanExporter
4.0.4GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source
Delays removal of Jackson 2 support until 4.3 at the earliest.
4.0.3GitHub ReleaseSummarizedView source