Maven properties

Maven properties can be used in pom.xml file or in any resource that is being processed by the Maven Resource plugin’s filtering features. A property is always surrounded by ${ and }.

Built-in properties

• ${basedir} represents the directory containing pom.xml
• ${version} equivalent to ${project.version} 

Project properties

All elements in the pom.xml, can be referenced with the project. prefix. This list is just an example of some commonly used elements:

• ${project.build.directory} results in the path to your "target" directory.
• ${project.build.outputDirectory} results in the path to your "target/classes" directory.
• ${project.name} refers to the name of the project.
• ${project.build.finalName} refers to the final name of the file created when the built project is packaged.
• ${project.build.sourceDirectory} results in the path to your "src" directory.

Local user settings

Similarly, values in the user's settings.xml can be referenced using property names with settings. prefix.
${settings.localRepository} refers to the path of the user's local repository

Environment variables

Environment variables can be referenced using the env prefix,  ${env.PATH} returns the value of system's PATH variable. Any property which can be retrieved from the System.getProperty() method can be referenced as a Maven property. For example, ${java.home} specifies the path to the Java installation directory.

Parent Project variables

How can parent project variables be accessed? You can use the prefix: ${project.parent}.

Building project without running test

Next information refers to maven surfire plugin. If you want to disable tests to be run while building your project you have two options to utilize:

• -DskipTests skips project's tests, but compiling them.
• -Dmaven.test.skip skip all tests and even doesn't try to compile them.