Where is the default maven-release-plugin defined?

Question

mvn:effective-pom claims my project uses

          <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.2</version>
          </plugin>

but nowhere in the project I have this defined. I tried grepping in the project dir and in the apache-maven dir for "maven-release" but it didn't find anything interesting.

Answer 1

It's defined in one of the parent POMs, or in the Super POM , which is an implicit parent of every other POM.

Here's how the Super POM looks like for Maven version 3.3.9: https://maven.apache.org/ref/3.3.9/maven-model-builder/super-pom.html

the relevant snippet:

    <plugin>
      <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>2.3.2</version>
    </plugin>

Answer 2

If the version is not defined in the or sections of your pom or parent pm. It will depend on the maven version you are using.