Maven

Plugins Commands

Extend Maven with plugins for compilation, testing, packaging, and code analysis. Configure built-in and third-party plugins in pom.xml for automated build tasks.

8 commands

Pro Tips

Lock plugin versions with '<pluginManagement>' to ensure reproducible builds across environments.

Use 'mvn help:effective-pom' to see the full resolved POM with all inherited plugin configurations.

Run a specific goal: 'mvn compiler:compile' runs just the compile goal without the full lifecycle.

Common Mistakes

Not pinning plugin versions means Maven uses defaults that can change. Always specify versions for reproducibility.

Plugin execution order matters in the same phase. Declare them in the order you want them to execute.

Commands

Effective POM

$ mvn help:effective-pom

Display resolved POM.

Effective settings

$ mvn help:effective-settings

Show resolved settings.xml.

Plugin help

$ mvn help:describe -Dplugin=compiler

Show plugin documentation.

Plugin goal help

$ mvn help:describe -Dplugin=compiler -Dgoal=compile -Ddetail

Show goal parameters.

Run exec plugin

$ mvn exec:java -Dexec.mainClass="com.example.Main"

Execute Java main class.

Generate site

$ mvn site

Generate project documentation.

Javadoc

$ mvn javadoc:javadoc

Generate Javadoc.

Source JAR

$ mvn source:jar

Create sources JAR.