How do I exclude certain modules from a Maven build using the commandline

Question

Is there a way to exclude some modules from a big reactor build, similar to -pl ?

Here are a number of ways to do it persistently:

How to exclude a module from a Maven reactor build?

I want to do it from shell, or at least without modifying the poms, which I am not allowed to change.

Answer 1

Maven 3.2.1 has added this feature, you can use to specify the exact projects you want (or to exclude the projects you don't want) -pl or --projects Here's how to exclude two:

-pl "!<modulename>,!<modulename2>"

for exclude certain modules. This can be comma separated list of values that you want to include/exclude.

Answer 2

Another comment on the accepted answer, don't forget to escape the exclamation sign when running the command in bash:

> mvn clean install -pl \!module,\!module/submodule,\!groupId:artifactId

Answer 3

As Yogesh_D wrote it can be done with the -pl argument with maven 3.2.1+

Here's an example:

> mvn clean install -amd -pl !module,!module/submodule

You need to list every sub-module (and sub-sub-module etc) manually, it does not exclude them recursively. Use the slash for package separation. It's the folder path, not the group or artifact id.

Answer 4

I don't believe this is currently possible from the command line. There is an open feature request in maven3 for this very thing (https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MNG-5230).

Looks like your only option at this point is to modify the pom and create a new build profile that includes only the modules you want to build.

Answer 5

Instead of using exclamation ! sign you can use minus - sign.

mvn clean -pl -module1

You can also exclude multiple modules.

mvn clean -pl -module1,-module2

or

mvn clean -pl -module1 -pl -module2

Tested with:

• Apache Maven 3.5.4 (1edded0938998edf8bf061f1ceb3cfdeccf443fe; 2018-06-17T20:33:14+02:00)
• Apache Maven 3.6.3 (cecedd343002696d0abb50b32b541b8a6ba2883f)

Excluded modules must be in reactor of current project, so we can't exclude no existing module.

mvn clean -pl -no-existing-module 

currently will fail - https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MNG-7033

Answer 6

in 2019 it's

mvn install -pl !:module1

(Windows 10 cmd)

Answer 7

comma separated module name enclosed with double quotes. eg::

mvn install -pl "!Module1, !Module2"