Using the Maven Help plugin

Maven provides a –h command-line flag to display various command-line parameters that it supports. However, there is a Help plugin that helps you get other information.

How to do it...

1. Open the simple Maven project.

2. Run the following command:

     mvn help:effective-pom 
   

3. Observe the output:

   

4. Run the following command on a project with a profile (for instance, project-with-profile):

   mvn help:all-profiles
   

5. Observe the output:

   [INFO] --- maven-help-plugin:2.2:all-profiles (default-cli) @ project-with-profile ---
   [INFO] Listing Profiles for Project: com.packt.cookbook:project-with-profile:jar
   :1.0-SNAPSHOT
     Profile Id: dev (Active: false , Source: pom)
   

6. Run the following command:

   mvn –help:active-profiles
   

7. Observe the output:

   Active Profiles for Project 'com.packt.cookbook:project-with-profile:jar:1.0-SNAPSHOT':
   
   The following profiles are active:
   

8. Now run the following command:

   mvn –Pdev help:active-profiles
   

9. Observe the output:

   Active Profiles for Project 'com.packt.cookbook:project...