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 · Accepted 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":

<project>
    ...
    <build>
        <directory>${project.basedir}/target</directory>
        <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/classes</outputDirectory>
        <finalName>${project.artifactId}-${project.version}</finalName>
        <testOutputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/test-classes</testOutputDirectory>
        <sourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/main/java</sourceDirectory>
        <scriptSourceDirectory>src/main/scripts</scriptSourceDirectory>
        <testSourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/test/java</testSourceDirectory>
        <resources>
            <resource>
                <directory>${project.basedir}/src/main/resources</directory>
            </resource>
        </resources>
        <testResources>
            <testResource>
                <directory>${project.basedir}/src/test/resources</directory>
            </testResource>
        </testResources>
        ...
    </build>
    ...
</project>

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

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 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

Update

Examples related to maven