How to echo in Maven without Antrun plugin?

Question

How can I print to the console while executing a mvn command (in a phase/goal), but not using Maven Antrun plugin?

Why I reject Antrun solutions:

• The overhead in code to print a single message is massiv.
• The output is no formated like maven output
• I cannot attach a severity to the message (e.g. DEBUG, INFO, ERROR, etc)

Currently an Ant-echo looks like this (see line with "hello world"):

[INFO] --- maven-antrun-plugin:1.7:run (default) @ ejpd-alertmanager-ear ---
[WARNING] Parameter tasks is deprecated, use target instead
[INFO] Executing tasks
main:
 [echo] hello world
[INFO] Executed tasks
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

However, I expect it to look like this (see line with "hello world").

[INFO] --- maven-antrun-plugin:1.7:run (default) @ ejpd-alertmanager-ear ---
[WARNING] Parameter tasks is deprecated, use target instead
[INFO] Executing tasks
[INFO] hello world
[INFO] Executed tasks
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm positive, I am missing something here, since I cannot be the first to raise this demand. Thank you for any smart hint.

Answer 1

You should try the Maven Echo plugin:

<plugin>
  <groupId>com.soebes.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-echo-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>0.1</version>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <phase>initialize</phase>
      <goals>
        <goal>echo</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
  <configuration>
    <echos>
      <echo>This is the Text which will be printed out.</echo>
    </echos>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

Or furthermore take a deeper look into the integration test of the plugin.

which is available via Maven Central. BTW: If you have further requests/improvements just file in an issue.

Answer 2

You can use Björn Ekryd's Echo Maven Plugin, which is published in Maven Central.

It has a normal amount of XML required for a Maven plugin, the output is formatted like the other Maven log lines, and you can assign a severity level to your message (default is INFO).

<plugin>
    <groupId>com.github.ekryd.echo-maven-plugin</groupId>
    <artifactId>echo-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.0</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>echo</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <message>war has changed</message>
                <level>INFO</level>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

---

[INFO] --- maven-war-plugin:2.4:war (default-war) @ mymodule ---
[INFO] Packaging webapp
[INFO] Processing war project
[INFO]
[INFO] --- echo-maven-plugin:1.2.0:echo (default) @ mymodule ---
[INFO] war has changed
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also, this plugin has 95% code coverage, which is pretty cool.