Parent properties inside maven antrun plugin - maven-2

Question

There is a multi-module project. Inside the child I need to do some complicated stuff (integration test with deploying to application server and so on). So there is an integrationtest child, and from this module I need the root of the parent to reach other modules. I do not want to use "..". There is a property in integrationtest POM:
<properties>
<main.basedir>${project.parent.basedir}</main.basedir>
...
</properties>
And there is an antrun plugin with the following content:
<plugins>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>render-parameter-sql</id>
<phase>validate</phase>
<goals>
<goal>run</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<tasks>
<echoproperties/>
</tasks>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
In the output, the main.basedir is not resolved:
main:
[echoproperties] #Ant properties
[echoproperties] #Thu Oct 28 09:32:13 CEST 2010
[echoproperties] ant.core.lib=C\:\\Users\\gaborl\\.m2\\repository\\org\\apache\\ant\\ant\\1.8.1\\ant-1.8.1.jar
...
[echoproperties] main.basedir=${project.parent.basedir}
[echoproperties] maven.dependency.antlr.antlr.jar.path=C\:\\Users\\gaborl\\.m2\\repository\\antlr\\antlr\\2.7.6\\antlr-2.7.6.jar
After becoming really angry I decided to ask you how to get around this...

Answer 1

I don't know exactly why the ${project.parent.basedir} is not "available" from AntRun, maybe it's just not supported (see http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MNG-3597).
Here is an horrible workaround using gmaven:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.gmaven</groupId>
<artifactId>gmaven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.3</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>set-custom-property</id>
<phase>validate</phase>
<goals>
<goal>execute</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<source>
project.properties.setProperty('main.basedir', project.parent.basedir.toString())
</source>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.6</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>render-parameter-sql</id>
<phase>validate</phase>
<goals>
<goal>run</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<target>
<echo>project.artifactId : ${project.artifactId}</echo>
<echo>project.parent.basedir : ${project.parent.basedir}</echo>
<echo>main.basedir : ${main.basedir}</echo>
<echo>project.basedir : ${project.basedir}</echo>
<echo>project.build.directory : ${project.build.directory}</echo>
</target>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
I'm not proud of it, but it kinda "works" (if a string representation of the path to the parent basedir is ok for you):
$ mvn validate
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
...
[INFO] --- maven-antrun-plugin:1.6:run (render-parameter-sql) # Q4040778 ---
[INFO] Executing tasks
main:
[echo] project.artifactId : Q4040778
[echo] project.parent.basedir : ${project.parent.basedir}
[echo] main.basedir : /home/pascal/Projects/stackoverflow
[echo] project.basedir : /home/pascal/Projects/stackoverflow/Q4040778
[echo] project.build.directory : /home/pascal/Projects/stackoverflow/Q4040778/target
[INFO] Executed tasks
...
But I need to say that what you want to do (from this module I need the root of the parent to reach other modules) is a bad practice, modules should be self contained and not tightly coupled.
I do not recommend using what I posted :)