How to debug a maven goal with intellij idea?

Question

Figured it out:

1. from the command line, run maven goal with mvnDebug instead of mvn. E.g. mvnDebug clean
2. Open the source of the maven plugin you want to debug in intelliJ and set a breakPoint
3. In IDEA, add a Remote JVM Debug Configuration.
   1. Under Settings, set Transport: Socket, Debugger Mode: Attach, Host: localhost, Port: 8000 (default port of mvnDebug).
4. Run the Configuration in Debug mode. It should connect to the waiting mvnDebug jvm.

Very easy. I am using Intellj Idea 15.0.4

1. Set the breakpoint in your maven plugin
2. In the tag "Maven Projects" go to the project witch is using your maven plugin.
3. In "Plugins" find your plugin and over the goal right click and Debug

Here is a screenshot:

Old question, but I was having the same need and it took me a while to get it to work. Hopefully can help someone.

For test debugging use:

mvn <goal> -Dmaven.surefire.debug

or

mvn <goal> -Dmaven.failsafe.debug

When execution stops and listens to socket at address 5005 (default) you run your configured remote debugger.

How to configure it:

Run -> Edit configurations -> Remote Transport: socket Debugger mode: Attach Port: 5005 (default)

-> Save.

The easiest way to debug maven goal ONLY within IntelliJ is to create a regular maven goal and in the runner tab pass those VM options:

-Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=8000

Where 8000 is a port number for remote debugging.

Then create new Remote configuration with port 8000. Run this configuration after running maven goal.