Mvn compile before exec

compilation, exec, maven, phase

Solution

It's an old topic, but someone else might be interested in an alternative solution for this.

It's not exactly what you were looking for, but you can compile and execute using a single command:

mvn compile exec:exec

This way Maven will always compile the project before executing it.

Problem

I am trying to set up my POM such that when I do `mvn exec:exec` or `mvn exec:java` it will first compile the source and iff successful, execute it. I have the following and have tried moving the `<execution>` part about but can't get it to work: ``` <build> <plugins> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId> <version>3.1</version> <configuration> <source>1.7</source> <target>1.7</target> </configuration> <executions> <execution> <phase>exec</phase> </execution> </executions> </plugin> <plugin> <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId> <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId> <version>1.2.1</version> <configuration> <mainClass>my.main.class</mainClass> </configuration> </plugin> </plugins> </build> ``` When I do either `mvn exec:exec ...` or `mvn exec:java` it doesn't first compile. I have tried putting the `<execution>` part in the `exec` plugin section but that didn't work either?

Original source