Struggling with Maven parent/child plugin configuration inheritance

Question

I'm trying to write a parent pom, and I have a plugin defined, but I need to change the config for all inherited instances. So, I can put some configuration in the <pluginManagement> definition, and I can override it in the <plugin>, but how do I get the children to default back to the <pluginManagement> version?

<build>     <pluginManagement>         <plugins>             <plugin>                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>                 <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>                 <version>2.9.1</version>                 <executions...>                 <configuration>                     <configLocation>                         (used by all children)                     </configLocation>                 </configuration>             </plugin>         </plugins>     </pluginManagement>     <plugins>         <plugin>             <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>             <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>             <configuration>                 <configLocation>                     (unique to the parent)                 </configLocation>             </configuration>         </plugin>     </plugins> <build> 

So, what happens is the children continue to show the parent's config.

Answer 1

Ok, I think I have it. The answer, in my case, relates to what you specified - I did need the tag. However the solution was in the tag; by binding it to a non-phase, it does execute. This I knew. What I discovered is that the had to match in order for it to override. Thus, the config never gets parsed and doesn't matter.

<build>     <pluginManagement>         <plugins>             <plugin>                 <!-- Main declaration of the plugin -->                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>                 <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>                 <version>2.9.1</version>                 <executions>                     <execution>                         <!--This must be named-->                         <id>checkstyle</id>                         <phase>compile</phase>                         <goals>                             <goal>check</goal>                         </goals>                     </execution>                 </executions>                 <configuration...>             </plugin>         </plugins>     </pluginManagement>     <plugins>         <plugin>             <!-- Uses the default config -->             <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>             <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>             <inherited>false</inherited>             <executions>                 <execution>                     <!--This matches and thus overrides-->                     <id>checkstyle</id>                     <phase>none</phase>                 </execution>             </executions>         </plugin>     </plugins> </build>