Question

Updated to (hopefully) clarify: If a goal is defined to run during a given phase, is it possible to run the individual goal without running thru all phases. In other words would it be possible to run the antrun:run goal (which is defined as part of the install phase below) without getting dependencies, generate-resources, compiling, testing, package, etc?

I’m using the antrun plugin to create a zip file during the package phase and to delete and copy some files during the install phase. I understand how to run single maven plugin goals, for example: mvn antrun:run. However, is there a way to run a specific execution’s goal? Something like mvn antrun:run:execution-id, or mvn phase:antrun:run?

Basically, I’d be nice if I can tell maven to do nothing else but run the ant tasks defined below inside the deploy phase, for example. It’s kind of tedious having to wait for maven to go thru all the phases just to check if the ant tasks in the deploy phase are working correctly.

<executions>
  <!-- create zip file -->
  <execution>
    <id>create-zip</id>
    <phase>package</phase>
    <configuration>
      <tasks>
    ...create zip...
      </tasks>
    </configuration>
    <goals>
      <goal>run</goal>
    </goals>
      </execution>
  <!-- do some other stuff  -->
  <execution>
    <id>copy-files</id>
    <phase>install</phase>
    <configuration>
      <tasks>
    ...delete some files, copy some files ...
      </tasks>
    </configuration>
    <goals>
      <goal>run</goal>
    </goals>
      </execution>
    </executions>

Answer 1

In other words would it be possible to run the antrun:run goal (which is defined as part of the install phase below) without getting dependencies, generate-resources, compiling, testing, package, etc?

No it’s not. While you can configure a plugin (with a <configuration> section under the <plugin> element) and call in on the command line, you can’t invoke a specific executionid (and consequently the <configuration> specific to an <execution>).

The only solution in your case would be to declare the antrun plugin in a profile, let’s say my-profile, to duplicate the following part of the configuration to configure the plugin in this profile:

<plugin>
  <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>1.3</version>
  <configuration>
    <tasks>
      ... delete some files, copy some files ...
    </tasks>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

and to call with the right active profile:

mvn antrun:run -Pmy-profile