maven profile should be activated but is not-CodePudding

I have been using maven for years now but I bumped into an issue. As always I create a repo to illustrate my issue: git clone https://github.com/clembo590/issues.git --branch mavenProfiles

I just created a multi module maven where I expect the QA profile to be active but it is not.

Here is how the parent pom look like:

  <profiles>
    <!-- build mdr-commons ONLY IF PRESENT -->
    <profile>
      <id>mdr-commons</id>
      <activation>
        <file>
          <exists>mdr-commons/pom.xml</exists>
        </file>
      </activation>
      <modules>
        <module>mdr-commons</module>
      </modules>
    </profile>

    <profile>
      <id>QA</id>
      <activation>
        <activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
      </activation>
      <build>
        <plugins>

          <!-- this is to check that the coded is formatted : you can use 'apply' instead of 'check' to actually format the code -->
          <plugin>
            <groupId>com.diffplug.spotless</groupId>
            <artifactId>spotless-maven-plugin</artifactId>

if you run mvn clean install you will get those logs:

[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Reactor Build Order:
[INFO] 
[INFO] mdr-parent                                                         [pom]
[INFO] mdr-commons                                                        [pom]
[INFO] 
[INFO] -----------------------< com.example:mdr-parent >-----------------------
[INFO] Building mdr-parent 1.0.0                                          [1/2]
[INFO] --------------------------------[ pom ]---------------------------------
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-clean-plugin:2.5:clean (default-clean) @ mdr-parent ---
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-install-plugin:2.4:install (default-install) @ mdr-parent ---
[INFO] Installing ...
[INFO] 
[INFO] ----------------------< com.example:mdr-commons >-----------------------
[INFO] Building mdr-commons 1.0.0                                         [2/2]
[INFO] --------------------------------[ pom ]---------------------------------
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-clean-plugin:2.5:clean (default-clean) @ mdr-commons ---
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- spotless-maven-plugin:2.11.1:check (default) @ mdr-commons ---
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-install-plugin:2.4:install (default-install) @ mdr-commons ---
[INFO] Installing ...
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

spotless-maven-plugin is not executed when building mdr-parent which means that QA profile is not active when build mdr-parent. (it is active when building mdr-commons)

question 1: why is QA profile not active when building mdr-parent?

question 2: just delete completely the folder called mdr-commons and re run mvn clean install --> why is QA profile active this time ? (you will see in the logs that the spotless-maven-plugin is executed)

thanks in advance maven experts

CodePudding user response：

That is described in documentation:

This profile will automatically be active for all builds unless another profile in the same POM is activated using one of the previously described methods. All profiles that are active by default are automatically deactivated when a profile in the POM is activated on the command line or through its activation config.

CodePudding user response：

The answer can be found in Details on profile activation of the Maven Guide.

TLDR; Profiles which are activeByDefault are deactivated whenever another profile was activated by any other method.

The mdr-commons profile is activated if file mdr-commons/pom.xml exists. In that case, the QA profile is deactivated. If this file does not exist, the QA profile is "active by default".