Maven pluginManagement configuration inheritance strange behavior

Question

I\'m using pluginManagement element in my parent pom.xml to configure plugins for all its children. For example, I have the following configuration

Answer 1

The whole POM isn't visible; but given the behavior you're describing this is a jar, war, or ear, correct? The resource plugin is defined for those packaging types by default. It includes an execution that copies resources (as described by @maba).

Since the plugin definition is included in your child POM (even though YOU didn't put it there directly), Maven merges the execution defined in the <pluginManagement> section with the execution provided by Maven.

There is documentation describing the default lifecycle bindings by packaging type. Note the dependency plugin isn't mentioned; but resources is; that's why you observe the difference. Running with -X will show the plugin executions.

Answer 2

Maven always copies resources that are inside src/main/resources by default.

From Maven Getting Started Guide:

The simple rule employed by Maven is this: any directories or files placed within the ${basedir}/src/main/resources directory are packaged in your JAR with the exact same structure starting at the base of the JAR.