Maven: How to change path to target directory from command line?

Question

Maven: How to change path to target directory from command line?

(I want to use another target directory in some cases)

Answer 1

You should use profiles.

<profiles>
    <profile>
        <id>otherOutputDir</id>
        <build>
            <directory>yourDirectory</directory>
        </build>
    </profile>
</profiles>

And start maven with your profile

mvn compile -PotherOutputDir

If you really want to define your directory from the command line you could do something like this (NOT recommended at all) :

<properties>
    <buildDirectory>${project.basedir}/target</buildDirectory>
</properties>

<build>
    <directory>${buildDirectory}</directory>
</build>

And compile like this :

mvn compile -DbuildDirectory=test

That's because you can't change the target directory by using -Dproject.build.directory

Answer 2

Colin is correct that a profile should be used. However, his answer hard-codes the target directory in the profile. An alternate solution would be to add a profile like this:

    <profile>
        <id>alternateBuildDir</id>
        <activation>
            <property>
                <name>alt.build.dir</name>
            </property>
        </activation>
        <build>
            <directory>${alt.build.dir}</directory>
        </build>
    </profile>

Doing so would have the effect of changing the build directory to whatever is given by the alt.build.dir property, which can be given in a POM, in the user's settings, or on the command line. If the property is not present, the compilation will happen in the normal target directory.