How to echo in Maven without Antrun plugin?

Question

How can I print to the console while executing a mvn command (in a phase/goal), but not using Maven Antrun plugin?

Why I reject Antrun solutions:

• The overhead in code to print a single message is massiv.
• The output is no formated like maven output
• I cannot attach a severity to the message (e.g. DEBUG, INFO, ERROR, etc)

Currently an Ant-echo looks like this (see line with "hello world"):

[INFO] --- maven-antrun-plugin:1.7:run (default) @ ejpd-alertmanager-ear ---
[WARNING] Parameter tasks is deprecated, use target instead
[INFO] Executing tasks
main:
 [echo] hello world
[INFO] Executed tasks
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

However, I expect it to look like this (see line with "hello world").

[INFO] --- maven-antrun-plugin:1.7:run (default) @ ejpd-alertmanager-ear ---
[WARNING] Parameter tasks is deprecated, use target instead
[INFO] Executing tasks
[INFO] hello world
[INFO] Executed tasks
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm positive, I am missing something here, since I cannot be the first to raise this demand. Thank you for any smart hint.

Fiorin

What exactly do you want to print out? The output will already contain details of the phase/goal that is being executed. – Teleprinter

Hi Dave, 1st) property values when a goal has been executed (I want to check if a variable is set correctly at runtime. e.g. operting system, concatenated properties when running the maven-resources-plugin. etc.). 2) When executing antrun copy or move task (or again the maven-resources-plugin), I want to echo in a maven-formated-style. Saying, starting with [INFO]. e.g. [INFO] Successfully copied file x to path y. Do I make sense? – Fiorin

Answer 1

I haven't tried this myself but there is a plugin here which may help:

http://code.google.com/p/maven-echo-plugin/

Teleprinter

Unfortunately this plugin is not in Maven Central. – Ollie

A quick check on google shows it is available from mvn repository at this link: mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.soebes.maven.plugins/… - ok, it's not exactly the same as I originally answered but it looks to do the same task. – Teleprinter

Probably that is all we can get for now. Thanks. – Fiorin

I have written that the plugin from code.google.com is not available in Maven central where the given plugin (groupId: com.soebes.maven.plugins) is available from maven central. – Ollie

Try the 'echo-maven-plugin' available in Maven Central: code.google.com/p/echo-maven-plugin – Douceur

Answer 2

You should try the Maven Echo plugin:

<plugin>
  <groupId>com.soebes.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-echo-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>0.1</version>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <phase>initialize</phase>
      <goals>
        <goal>echo</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
  <configuration>
    <echos>
      <echo>This is the Text which will be printed out.</echo>
    </echos>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

Or furthermore take a deeper look into the integration test of the plugin.

which is available via Maven Central. BTW: If you have further requests/improvements just file in an issue.

Ollie

Answer 3

You can use Björn Ekryd's Echo Maven Plugin, which is published in Maven Central.

It has a normal amount of XML required for a Maven plugin, the output is formatted like the other Maven log lines, and you can assign a severity level to your message (default is INFO).

<plugin>
    <groupId>com.github.ekryd.echo-maven-plugin</groupId>
    <artifactId>echo-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.0</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>echo</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <message>war has changed</message>
                <level>INFO</level>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

---

[INFO] --- maven-war-plugin:2.4:war (default-war) @ mymodule ---
[INFO] Packaging webapp
[INFO] Processing war project
[INFO]
[INFO] --- echo-maven-plugin:1.2.0:echo (default) @ mymodule ---
[INFO] war has changed
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also, this plugin has 95% code coverage, which is pretty cool.

Previdi

Cool, especially that I can use <fromFile> to output the content of a file. Just perfect for my needs! This should be the accepted answer as of today. – Dortheydorthy

Answer 4

You can use Groovy Maven Plugin for this.

<plugin>                                                         
    <groupId>org.codehaus.gmaven</groupId>                       
    <artifactId>groovy-maven-plugin</artifactId>                 
    <version>2.0</version>                                       
    <executions>                                                 
        <execution>                                              
            <phase>validate</phase>                              
            <goals>                                              
                <goal>execute</goal>                             
            </goals>                                             
            <configuration>                                      
                <source>                                         
                    log.info('Test message: {}', 'Hello, World!')
                </source>                                        
            </configuration>                                     
        </execution>                                             
    </executions>                                                
</plugin>                                                        

The configuration above will produce the following output:

[INFO] Test message: Hello, World!

Rozamond