How to compile Maven project with Xlint

Question

Is there a way how to pass compiler arguments with a command line to Maven?I know I can specify that in compiler-plugin but I'd like to run Xlint from command line as well. So I tried something like

mvn clean install -DskipTests=true -DcompilerArgument=-Xlint:deprecation

but with no success.

Answer 1

For this concrete case (deprecation warnings), there actually is a property which can be used from the command line:

mvn clean install -Dmaven.compiler.showDeprecation=true

In contrary to the compilerArgument solution, this also works when using the compiler inside the maven process, not only when using fork=true.

A similarly useful property is maven.compiler.showWarnings.

Answer 2

You can define a compiler plugin like this:

<plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
        <compilerArgument>${compilerArgument}</compilerArgument>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Then pass parameter from the command line:

mvn -DcompilerArgument=-Xlint:deprecation compile

If you don't pass -DcompilerArgument, it will not break the build because 'compilerArgument' in the compiler plugin argument will be empty and ignored.