Maven skip compile

Question

I want to use Maven to execute a certain plug-in that only needs the source code but I do not want Maven to compile anything (mostly because the project just doesn't compile).

How do I tell Maven to skip the compile step and just launch its plug-in and then package the generated resources together in a nice JAR? (The procedure of the last step is already known to me.)

Additional Info:

So we tried a lot of things right now, e.g.:

<plugin>     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>     <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>     <version>3.0</version>     <configuration>         <excludes>             <exclude>**/*</exclude>         </excludes>         <source>1.7</source>             <target>1.7</target>     </configuration>     <executions>         <execution>             <phase>deploy</phase>         </execution>     </executions> </plugin> 

Though when we do a mvn package we get this:

[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:3.0:compile (default-compile) @ project --- [INFO] Changes detected - recompiling the module! [INFO] Compiling ALOTOF source files to /home/myname/dir/dir/project/target/classes 

message edited ofc.

Answer 1

<plugin>    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>    <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>    <executions>      <execution>        <id>default-compile</id>        <phase>compile</phase>        <goals>           <goal>compile</goal>        </goals>        <configuration>          <skipMain>true</skipMain> <--Skip        </configuration>      </execution>    </executions> </plugin> 

Set this to 'true' to bypass compilation of main sources. Its use is NOT RECOMMENDED, but quite convenient on occasion. User property is: maven.main.skip.

mvn package -Dmaven.main.skip

Answer 2

Maven functionality is partly organized in plugins, that contains goals. These goals can be executed without being part of a lifecycle. Eg for for the jar-plugin's jar-goal you would invoke:

mvn jar:jar 

If you browse through the list of available plugins you will probably find the functionality you are looking for. If it is necessary you could even define an "assembly" to select the files you want to bundle into an archive.