I agree this behavior is unexpected. But it's different for properties! So
a workaround here is to have a unique property for each check you want to
skip, so that you can override the property by command line rather than
overriding the <skip> configuration directly. Then you can have a single
way to set all these properties. In my company's parent pom we have a
profile that can be activated like `mvn install -P quick` to skip tests and
checks:
<profile>
<id>quick</id>
<properties>
<checkstyle.skip>true</checkstyle.skip>
<duplicate-finder.skip>true</duplicate-finder.skip>
<enforcer.skip>true</enforcer.skip>
<skipITs>true</skipITs>
<skipTests>true</skipTests>
</properties>
</profile>
So if I want to still run the enforcer plugin, I can do this: `mvn install
-P quick -Denforcer.skip=false`.
If you want to keep using a property rather than a profile, I assume you
could have the specific property for each check reference your main
property by default, like:
<properties>
<skip.our.enforcer>${skipChecks}</skip.our.enforcer>
</properties>
[...]
<skip>${skip.our.enforcer}</skip>
But I haven't tested it.
On Mon, Sep 14, 2020 at 9:11 AM Andreas Sewe <andreas_s...@buildingblobs.com>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am currently sprinkling <configuration> child elements like the
> following through my (parent) POMs for enforcer:enforce, tidy:check and
> checkstyle:check <executions>:
>
> <skip>${skipChecks}</skip>
>
> This allows me to skip all kinds of checks with a simple
> -DskipChecks=true (or even -DskipChecks), just like I am used to for
> tests with -DskipTests.
>
> Unfortunately, I cannot selectively override this, as the following
> doesn't work:
>
> mvn install -DskipChecks -Denforcer.skip=false
>
> The above command still uses the <skip>${skipChecks}</skip> (with
> skipChecks=true).
>
> Further experimentation led me to believe that *any* explicit pom.xml
> <configuration> cannot be overridden by a property expression given on
> the command line.
>
> This was very surprising, as I would have expected Maven to follow a
> "command line takes precedence over configuration file" approach like
> other tools -- but apparently it doesn't (at least in Maven 3.3.9 and
> 3.6.3) and thus violates the Principle of Least Astonishment (for one of
> its users anyway).
>
> In particular, Maven's handling of property expressions means that
> having no <skip> element and making the default explicit behave
> differently; a <configuration> element like this can never be overridden
> on the command-line:
>
> <skip>false</skip>
>
> I wonder why it was designed that way?
>
> Or should this be considered a bug?
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Andreas
>
>
