1. Overview
This quick tutorial introduces the compiler plugin, one of the core plugins of the Maven build tool. The Compiler Plugin is used to compile the sources of your project.
2. Plugin Goals
The Compiler Plugin has two goals. Both are already bound to their proper phases within the Maven Lifecycle and are therefore, automatically executed during their respective phases.
- compiler:compile is bound to the compile phase and is used to compile the main source files.
- compiler:testCompile is bound to the test-compile phase and is used to compile the test source files.
3. Usage
To compiling Java Sources:
mvn compile
To compile test sources:
mvn test-compile
4. Configuring Compiler Plugin
Since the Compiler Plugin executes automatically during their phases, you don't have to put executions unlike many other plugins. However, you should specify the version of the Compiler Plugin.
<project>
...
<build>
<pluginManagement>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.7.0</version>
<configuration>
<!-- put your configurations here -->
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</pluginManagement>
</build>
...
</project>
5. Examples
Refer below examples and use in your projects.
Example 1: Compiling Sources Using A Different JDK
The compilerVersion parameter can be used to specify the version of the compiler that the plugin will use. However, you also need to set fork to true for this to work. For example:
<project>
[...]
<build>
[...]
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.7.0</version>
<configuration>
<verbose>true</verbose>
<fork>true</fork>
<executable><!-- path-to-javac --></executable>
<compilerVersion>1.3</compilerVersion>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
[...]
</build>
[...]
</project>
To avoid hard-coding a filesystem path for the executable, you can use a property. For example:
<executable>${JAVA_1_4_HOME}/bin/javac</executable>
Each developer then defines this property in settings.xml, or sets an environment variable, so that the build remains portable.
<settings>
[...]
<profiles>
[...]
<profile>
<id>compiler</id>
<properties>
<JAVA_1_4_HOME>C:\Program Files\Java\j2sdk1.4.2_09</JAVA_1_4_HOME>
</properties>
</profile>
</profiles>
[...]
<activeProfiles>
<activeProfile>compiler</activeProfile>
</activeProfiles>
</settings>
Example 2:Setting the -source and -target of the Java Compiler
Sometimes when you may need to compile a certain project to a different version than what you are currently using. The javac can accept such command using -source and -target. The Compiler Plugin can also be configured to provide these options during compilation.
For example, if you want to use the Java 8 language features (-source 1.8) and also want the compiled classes to be compatible with JVM 1.8 (-target 1.8), you can either add the two following properties, which are the default property names for the plugin parameters:
<project>
[...]
<properties>
<maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
<maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
</properties>
[...]
</project>
or configure the plugin directly:
<project>
[...]
<build>
[...]
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.7.0</version>
<configuration>
<source>1.8</source>
<target>1.8</target>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
[...]
</build>
[...]
</project>
6. Conclusion
In this quick guide, we went over the compiler plugin and gave instructions on using and customizing it. The complete source code for this tutorial can be found over on GitHub.
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