maven error "Property ${samedir} has not been set"

Question

How to fix the maven checkstyle plugin error

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-checkstyle-plugin:3.1.2:check (validate) on project yourproject: 
Failed during checkstyle execution: 
Failed during checkstyle configuration: unable to parse configuration stream:
com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.CheckstyleException: 
Property ${samedir} has not been set -> [Help 1]

${samedir} is a property working well with eclipse plugin and is required to get related files mentioned in the checkstyle configuration working well with eclipse IDE. So either I need a consistent replacement, or I can tell maven to define the property

Any ideas how to fix this issue?

Answer 1

You will have to set these values via the plugin configuration in your pom.

Example configuration of pom.xml if you have a directory named checks in your project root:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>3.1.2</version>
    <configuration>
        <configLocation>${basedir}/checks/checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
        <propertiesLocation>${basedir}/checks/checkstyle_maven.properties</propertiesLocation>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

And the checkstyle_maven.properties contents:

samedir=checks

As an alternative to the <propertiesLocation> you can also use the following, in which case you don't need the .properties file:

<propertyExpansion>samedir=${basedir}/checks</propertyExpansion>

This will make sure any configuration in checkstyle.xml will work like this:

<module name="Checker">
    <module name="SuppressionFilter">
        <property name="file" value="${samedir}/suppress.xml"/>
    </module>
</module>

See for reference:

• Using ${samedir} in Checkstyle-plugins for Gradle and Eclipse
• http://rolf-engelhard.de/2011/04/using-the-same-suppression-filter-for-checkstyle-in-eclipse-and-maven/