[maven] Plugin execution not covered by lifecycle configuration (JBossas 7 EAR archetype)

I am using Eclipse 3.7 Indigo with Maven M2E Plugin 1.0.100.

Using the JBoss 7.x JavaEE 6 EAR archetype, the pom for EAR is giving me this error:

Plugin execution not covered by lifecycle configuration: org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-ear-plugin:2.6:generate-application-xml (execution: default-generate-application-xml, phase: generate-resources)

<plugin>
   <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
   <artifactId>maven-ear-plugin</artifactId>
   <version>2.6</version>
   <configuration>
      <!-- Tell Maven we are using Java EE 6 -->
      <version>6</version>
      <!-- Use Java EE ear libraries as needed. Java EE ear libraries 
                  are in easy way to package any libraries needed in the ear, and automatically 
                  have any modules (EJB-JARs and WARs) use them -->
      <defaultLibBundleDir>lib</defaultLibBundleDir>
      <modules></modules>
   </configuration>
<plugin>

Eclipse has got the concept of incremental builds.This is incredibly useful as it saves a lot of time.

How is this Useful

Say you just changed a single .java file. The incremental builders will be able to compile the code without having to recompile everything(which will take more time).

Now what's the problem with Maven Plugins

Most of the maven plugins aren't designed for incremental builds and hence it creates trouble for m2e. m2e doesn't know if the plugin goal is something which is crucial or if it is irrelevant. If it just executes every plugin when a single file changes, it's gonna take lots of time.

This is the reason why m2e relies on metadata information to figure out how the execution should be handled. m2e has come up with different options to provide this metadata information and the order of preference is as below(highest to lowest)

1. pom.xml file of the project
2. parent, grand-parent and so on pom.xml files
3. [m2e 1.2+] workspace preferences
4. installed m2e extensions
5. [m2e 1.1+] lifecycle mapping metadata provided by maven plugin
6. default lifecycle mapping metadata shipped with m2e

1,2 refers to specifying pluginManagement section in the tag of your pom file or any of it's parents. M2E reads this configuration to configure the project.Below snippet instructs m2e to ignore the jslint and compress goals of the yuicompressor-maven-plugin

<pluginManagement>
        <plugins>
            <!--This plugin's configuration is used to store Eclipse m2e settings 
                only. It has no influence on the Maven build itself. -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.eclipse.m2e</groupId>
                <artifactId>lifecycle-mapping</artifactId>
                <version>1.0.0</version>
                <configuration>
                    <lifecycleMappingMetadata>
                        <pluginExecutions>
                            <pluginExecution>
                                <pluginExecutionFilter>
                                    <groupId>net.alchim31.maven</groupId>
                                    <artifactId>yuicompressor-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                                    <versionRange>[1.0,)</versionRange>
                                    <goals>
                                        <goal>compress</goal>
                                        <goal>jslint</goal>
                                    </goals>
                                </pluginExecutionFilter>
                                <action>
                                    <ignore />
                                </action>
                            </pluginExecution>
                        </pluginExecutions>
                    </lifecycleMappingMetadata>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </pluginManagement>

3) In case you don't prefer polluting your pom file with this metadata, you can store this in an external XML file(option 3). Below is a sample mapping file which instructs m2e to ignore the jslint and compress goals of the yuicompressor-maven-plugin

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<lifecycleMappingMetadata>
    <pluginExecutions>
        <pluginExecution>
            <pluginExecutionFilter>
                <groupId>net.alchim31.maven</groupId>
                <artifactId>yuicompressor-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <versionRange>[1.0,)</versionRange>
                <goals>
                    <goal>compress</goal>
                    <goal>jslint</goal>
                </goals>
            </pluginExecutionFilter>
            <action>
                <ignore/>
            </action>
        </pluginExecution>
    </pluginExecutions>
</lifecycleMappingMetadata>

4) In case you don't like any of these 3 options, you can use an m2e connector(extension) for the maven plugin.The connector will in turn provide the metadata to m2e. You can see an example of the metadata information within a connector at this link . You might have noticed that the metadata refers to a configurator. This simply means that m2e will delegate the responsibility to that particular java class supplied by the extension author.The configurator can configure the project(like say add additional source folders etc) and decide whether to execute the actual maven plugin during an incremental build(if not properly managed within the configurator, it can lead to endless project builds)

Refer these links for an example of the configuratior(link1,link2). So in case the plugin is something which can be managed via an external connector then you can install it. m2e maintains a list of such connectors contributed by other developers.This is known as the discovery catalog. m2e will prompt you to install a connector if you don't already have any lifecycle mapping metadata for the execution through any of the options(1-6) and the discovery catalog has got some extension which can manage the execution.

The below image shows how m2e prompts you to install the connector for the build-helper-maven-plugin. .

5)m2e encourages the plugin authors to support incremental build and supply lifecycle mapping within the maven-plugin itself.This would mean that users won't have to use any additional lifecycle mappings or connectors.Some plugin authors have already implemented this

6) By default m2e holds the lifecycle mapping metadata for most of the commonly used plugins like the maven-compiler-plugin and many others.

Now back to the question :You can probably just provide an ignore life cycle mapping in 1, 2 or 3 for that specific goal which is creating trouble for you.

Even though the question is too old, but I would like to share the solution that worked for me because I already checked everything when it comes to this error. It was a pain, I spent two days trying and at the end the solution was:

update the M2e plugin in eclipse

clean and build again

A good workaround to remind you that m2e could be better configured, without the project inheriting a false positive error marker, is to just downgrade those errors to warnings:

Window -> Preferences -> Maven -> Errors/Warnings -> Plugin execution not covered by lifecycle configuration = Warning

anyway it's too late but my solution was simple right-click on error-message in Eclipse and choosing Quick Fix >> Ignore for every pom with such errors

As of Maven Eclipse (m2e) version 0.12 all Maven life-cycle goals must map to an installed m2e extension. In this case, the maven-ear-plugin had an-unmapped goal default-generate-application-xml.

You can exclude un-mapped life-cycle goals by simply following the instructions here:

https://wiki.eclipse.org/M2E_plugin_execution_not_covered

Alternatively, simply right-click on the error message in Eclipse and choosing Quick Fix -> Ignore for every pom with such errors.

You should be careful when ignoring life-cycle goals: typically goals do something useful and if you configure them to be ignored in Eclipse you may miss important build steps. You might also want to consider adding support to the Maven Eclipse EAR extension for the unmapped life-cycle goal.

I was able to resolve the same problem with maven-antrun-plugin and jaxb2-maven-plugin in Eclipse Kepler 4.3 by appying this solution: http://wiki.eclipse.org/M2E_plugin_execution_not_covered#Eclipse_4.2_add_default_mapping
So the content of my %elipse_workspace_name%/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.m2e.core/lifecycle-mapping-metadata.xml is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<lifecycleMappingMetadata>
  <pluginExecutions>
    <pluginExecution>
      <pluginExecutionFilter>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
        <versionRange>1.3</versionRange>
        <goals>
          <goal>run</goal>
        </goals>
      </pluginExecutionFilter>
      <action>
        <ignore />
      </action>
    </pluginExecution>
    <pluginExecution>
      <pluginExecutionFilter>
        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
        <artifactId>jaxb2-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <versionRange>1.2</versionRange>
        <goals>
          <goal>xjc</goal>
        </goals>
      </pluginExecutionFilter>
      <action>
        <ignore />
      </action>
    </pluginExecution>
  </pluginExecutions>
</lifecycleMappingMetadata>

_{*Had to restart Eclipse to see the errors gone.}

You need to understand the content in M2E_plugin_execution_not_covered and follow the steps mentioned below:

• Pick org.eclipse.m2e.lifecyclemapping.defaults jar from the eclipse plugin folder
• Extract it and open lifecycle-mapping-metadata.xml where you can find all the pluginExecutions.
• Add the pluginExecutions of your plugins which are shown as errors with <ignore/> under <action> tags.

eg: for write-project-properties error, add this snippet under the <pluginExecutions> section of the lifecycle-mapping-metadata.xml file:

 <pluginExecution>
    <pluginExecutionFilter>
       <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
       <artifactId>properties-maven-plugin</artifactId>
       <versionRange>1.0-alpha-2</versionRange>
       <goals>
         <goal>write-project-properties</goal>
       </goals>
    </pluginExecutionFilter>
     <action>
       <ignore />
     </action>
   </pluginExecution>

• Replace that XML file in the JAR
• Replace the updated JAR in Eclipse's plugin folder
• Restart Eclipse

You should see no errors in the future for any project.

I tried to execute specific plugging right after clean up i.e. post-clean (default is clean phase). This worked for me with eclipse indigo. Just added post-clean resolved the problem for me.

<executions>
  <execution>
    <configuration>
    </configuration>
   <phase>post-clean</phase>
    <goals>
      <goal>update-widgetset</goal>
    </goals>
  </execution>
</executions> 

With the mechanism explained in the answer of Jan I have instructed the m2e pluging to ignore the goal "generate-application-xml". This gets rid of the error and seems to work since m2e creates application.xml.

So basically the error forced us to decide which mechanism is in charge for generating application.xml when the Maven build runs inside Eclipse under the control of the m2e plugin. And we have decided that m2e is in charge.

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-ear-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.6</version>
            <configuration>
                <version>6</version>
                <defaultLibBundleDir>lib</defaultLibBundleDir>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
    <pluginManagement>
        <plugins>
            **<!-- This plugin's configuration is used to store Eclipse m2e settings 
                only. It has no influence on the Maven build itself. -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.eclipse.m2e</groupId>
                <artifactId>lifecycle-mapping</artifactId>
                <version>1.0.0</version>
                <configuration>
                    <lifecycleMappingMetadata>
                        <pluginExecutions>
                            <pluginExecution>
                                <pluginExecutionFilter>
                                    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                                    <artifactId>maven-ear-plugin</artifactId>
                                    <versionRange>[2.1,)</versionRange>
                                    <goals>
                                        <goal>generate-application-xml</goal>
                                    </goals>
                                </pluginExecutionFilter>
                                <action>
                                    <ignore></ignore>
                                </action>
                            </pluginExecution>
                        </pluginExecutions>
                    </lifecycleMappingMetadata>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>**
        </plugins>
    </pluginManagement>
</build>