what surefire version do you use?

<plugin>
	<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
	<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
	<version>2.19.1</version>
	<configuration>
		<forkCount>1</forkCount>
		<reuseForks>false</reuseForks>
		<systemPropertyVariables>
			<targetDir>${basedir}\target</targetDir>
<org.apache.cxf.Logger>org.apache.cxf.common.logging.Slf4jLogger</org.apache.cxf.Logger>
		</systemPropertyVariables>
		<trimStackTrace>false</trimStackTrace>
	</configuration>
</plugin>

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 257563 ***

This isn't a duplicate of that bug - I can't follow links for compilation errors either.
These links show up but don't work:
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:3.5:compile (default-compile) on project vacancy.router.core: Compilation failure: Compilation failure:
[ERROR] /D:/Work/shared_content_router/content_router_core/src/main/java/com/groupgti/shared/router/entity/TargetSet.java:[17,44] ';' expected
[ERROR] /D:/Work/shared_content_router/content_router_core/src/main/java/com/groupgti/shared/router/entity/TargetSet.java:[17,52] <identifier> expected


Maybe I'm suffering from two distinct bugs, but I'm not getting any links that work in the output  window.

Yes, it does look like two disctinct issues.
If I drop surefire to 2.18.1 links for failed tests are working, but links for compilation failures aren't.

No message appears for the failure of compilation error links.

I run into this daily, running daily builds.  To reproduce:

git clone https://github.com/timboudreau/mastfrog-parent.git
cd mastfrog-parent
./init

Then build any subproject in NetBeans, with a failing test (it contains subprojects which are git submodules, with the parent in parent/pom.xml).  Test failure links do not work.

Have tried with surefire 2.19.1 and 2.20.

Same issue on Linux with clean installation of NetBeans 8.2 on Openjdk8 and surefire 2.20

It's kind of related. It'll work with surefire 2.18.1. Something got changed in surfire 2.19 that was considered a bug and they fixed, but still it breaks NetBeans functionality.

On 2.19 NetBeans was unable to "see" the test results and was unable to show them in the test result window. This was fixed on surefire 2.20 but the links still are broken.

I have found two options:
1) Downgrade to 2.18.1.
2) Change configuration of surefire to display the full stack trace as follows:

<plugin>
                    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                    <version>2.20</version>
                    <configuration>
                        <trimStackTrace>false</trimStackTrace>
                        <argLine>-Dfile.encoding=${project.build.sourceEncoding}</argLine>
                    </configuration>
                </plugin>

The link won't work, but you'll have the infor in the output (without links)

Links do not work in output 100% of the time for me with surefire 2.20.

It appears that there are some fixes for this sort of issue in maven.junit (looking up the test folder from the project because in 2.19 and later it is not printed), but those changes are not used in TestOutputListenerProvider.

I'm attaching a patch that fixes the problem.

Created attachment 164675 [details]
Adds a pattern to TestOutputListenerProvider, and looks up the report directory from the project.  Works for me.

fixed in jet-main #4a0595619e5b

thanks for the patch

Integrated into 'main-silver', will be available in build *201707201608* on http://bits.netbeans.org/dev/nightly/ (upload may still be in progress)

Changeset: http://hg.netbeans.org/main-silver/rev/4a0595619e5b
User: Tomas Stupka <tstupka@netbeans.org>
Log: Issue #259108 - Links in Output window don't work ("Cannot follow link. Test output directory is missing").