Of course I can use the maven-exec-plugin. This will cause the build file to have two different configurations, one for windows, one for *ix. I will need to have a configuration file (going through filtering because of document-root setting to target/classes for example). That's possible.
Let me ask a question: Wouldn't it be easier to simply let Tomcat run in the background, for example on a dedicated machine or build server etc., (re-)deploy your artifact(s) and then start testing? To get the point: The same question can be applied to maven-tomcat-plugin and maven-jetty-plugin. So why having plugins at all and not having a huge amount of maven-exec-plugin invocations or ant invocations? I do not want to run into a philosophy session. I want to make it simple: There is already a tomcat plugin, there is already a jetty plugin. So there should be a httpd plugin. The question how to remotely deploy an artifact is a good question but may not be solved in a maven-httpd-plugin. I would expect this as part of another goal/lifecycle. But maybe I am wrong and this is why I am asking here. Is tomcat-plugin and jetty-plugin able to do remote-deployment and running remote-tests? Testing on build servers is IMHO the wrong answer because a build server checkouts the project, compiles it and performs a local test. There is no "remote deployment" for the build server. For now I simply want the following to work on a project: --> mvn apache-httpd:run --> mvn apache-httpd:stop --> mvn apache-httpd:restart --> mvn test I already said that I am focused on testing with selenium against a running apache httpd. In a company it should not be done through shared remote servers because the developers may fight against while deploying there local development snapshot to the remote server. To come back to your question: It will not be simple. A developer running the goals "run, stop, restart, test" does not mind how to configure a local apache, how to setup the document root, how to apply a working directory layout so that selenium finds the web application it should test. I think this can be covered by a plugin. Keeping in mind that maven is "COC" (Convention over configuration). I think it would be better to have a simple build plugin for httpd support and having some conventions for the project to run it with apache httpd.
