Plugins in Maven and POM.xml

Question

I just started using Maven and I read that plugins are additional components that can be used.
A typical structure of pom.xml file is

Answer 1

As additional answer for Reporting Plugins (e.g. maven-checkstyle-plugin) there are 2 tags under which plugins can go in pom.xml, under build and reporting.

Using the reporting Tag VS build Tag

Configuring a reporting plugin in the or elements in the pom does NOT have the same behavior!

mvn site

It uses only the parameters defined in the element of each reporting Plugin specified in the element, i.e. site always ignores the parameters defined in the element of each plugin specified in .

mvn aplugin:areportgoal

It uses firstly the parameters defined in the element of each reporting Plugin specified in the element; if a parameter is not found, it will look up to a parameter defined in the element of each plugin specified in .

Source: https://maven.apache.org/guides/mini/guide-configuring-plugins.html#Using_the_reporting_Tag_VS_build_Tag