Running a specific Maven plugin goal from the command line in a sub-module of a multi-module reactor project

Question

I\'m looking for a general technique here, but let\'s give a specific example. I have a multi-module project and I\'d like to run the exec:java goal from the co

Answer 1

There is another way which lets you choose multiple modules to execute a plugin.

Many plugins have a skip option, which you can activate on the root project by setting its value to true. The plugin execution will be skipped by default for all sub-modules then. Sub-modules that should execute the plugin can explicitly set skip to false. You still need to configure any non-optional attributes in the root project.

Example of the exec-maven-plugin with configuration for the exec:exec goal:

    
        
            
                org.codehaus.mojo
                exec-maven-plugin
                1.3.2
                
                    true
                    java
                
            
        
    

    
        
            org.codehaus.mojo
            exec-maven-plugin
            
                false