JUnit 3 'super.tearDown()' is not called from 'finally' block

Reports calls of the JUnit 3's super.tearDown() method that are not performed inside a finally block. If an exception is thrown before super.tearDown() is called it could lead to inconsistencies and leaks.

Example:

  public class AnotherTest extends CompanyTestCase {
    private Path path;

    @Override
    protected void setUp() throws Exception {
      super.setUp();
      path = Files.createTempFile("File", ".tmp");
    }

    @Override
    protected void tearDown() throws Exception {
      Files.delete(path);
      super.tearDown();
    }
  }

Improved code:

  public class AnotherTest extends CompanyTestCase {
    private Path path;

    @Override
    protected void setUp() throws Exception {
      super.setUp();
      path = Files.createTempFile("File", ".tmp");
    }

    @Override
    protected void tearDown() throws Exception {
      try {
        Files.delete(path);
      } finally {
        super.tearDown();
      }
    }
  }

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

SuperTearDownInFinally

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | JUnit

Inspection ID: SuperTearDownInFinally

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection SuperTearDownInFinally

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3, Qodana for JVM 2025.3,

Last modified: 03 December 2025