Maven project build directory

Question

In Maven  what does the project build directory refer to  I am a bit confused  does it reference the source code directory or the target directory in the Maven project

User · Answer

It points to your top level output directory (which by default is target):

https://web.archive.org/web/20150527103929/http://docs.codehaus.org/display/MAVENUSER/MavenPropertiesGuide

EDIT: As has been pointed out, Codehaus is now sadly defunct. You can find details about these properties from Sonatype here:

http://books.sonatype.com/mvnref-book/reference/resource-filtering-sect-properties.html#resource-filtering-sect-project-properties

If you are ever trying to reference output directories in Maven, you should never use a literal value like target/classes. Instead you should use property references to refer to these directories.
    project.build.sourceDirectory
    project.build.scriptSourceDirectory
    project.build.testSourceDirectory
    project.build.outputDirectory
    project.build.testOutputDirectory
    project.build.directory
sourceDirectory, scriptSourceDirectory, and testSourceDirectory provide access to the source directories for the project. outputDirectory and testOutputDirectory provide access to the directories where Maven is going to put bytecode or other build output. directory refers to the directory which contains all of these output directories.

User · Answer

Aside from  Verh  s Istv  n answer  which I like   I was expecting a one-liner for the question    project reporting outputDirectory  resolves to target site in your project

User · Answer

You can find those maven properties in the super pom   You find the jar here     M2 HOME  lib maven-model-builder-3 0 3 jar   Open the jar with 7-zip or some other archiver  or use the jar tool    Navigate to  org apache maven model   There you ll find the pom-4 0 0 xml   It contains all those  short cuts     lt project gt               lt build gt           lt directory gt   project basedir  target lt  directory gt           lt outputDirectory gt   project build directory  classes lt  outputDirectory gt           lt finalName gt   project artifactId -  project version  lt  finalName gt           lt testOutputDirectory gt   project build directory  test-classes lt  testOutputDirectory gt           lt sourceDirectory gt   project basedir  src main java lt  sourceDirectory gt           lt scriptSourceDirectory gt src main scripts lt  scriptSourceDirectory gt           lt testSourceDirectory gt   project basedir  src test java lt  testSourceDirectory gt           lt resources gt               lt resource gt                   lt directory gt   project basedir  src main resources lt  directory gt               lt  resource gt           lt  resources gt           lt testResources gt               lt testResource gt                   lt directory gt   project basedir  src test resources lt  directory gt               lt  testResource gt           lt  testResources gt                   lt  build gt           lt  project gt      Update  After some lobbying I am adding a link to the pom-4 0 0 xml  This allows you to see the properties without opening up the local jar file

User · Answer

You can find the most up to date answer for the value in your project just execute the   mvn3 help effective-pom   command and find the  lt build gt       lt directory gt  tag s value in the result aka in the effective-pom  It will show the value of the Super POM unless you have overwritten

[maven] Maven project.build.directory

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