How do I exclude a properties file when deploy

Question

I want to include this file when running locally, but exclude it when deploy. I tried the following the doesn't seem to work.

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
     <version>2.3</version>
     <executions>
       <execution>
     <phase>package</phase>
     <goals>
       <goal>jar</goal>
     </goals>
     <configuration>
       <excludes>
         <exclude>filename.properties</exclude>
       </excludes>
     </configuration>
      </execution>
    </executions>
 </plugin>

Answer 1

You should put that property file into src/test/resources than it will be available for Unit testing etc. but it will not being deployed.

Answer 2

I want to use this property file in development, but in production, I want to be able to use a different file.

There are several ways to achieve this but this is a perfect use case for profiles (and optionally filtering).

The Building For Different Environments with Maven 2 page explains how you could manage different property files and use the Maven Antrun plugin to pick up the "right" one depending on the profile used.

Instead of using the Antrun plugin, you could declare environment specific values as properties in different profiles in your POM and use Maven filtering. See Using Maven profiles and resource filtering for a full example. This is especially nice if you need to protect some informations (that you can "hide" in a profile inside ~/.m2/settings.xml). See also Tips and Tricks for an illustration of this.

Or, instead of putting properties inside profiles, you could put them in "filter files" and apply the right filter depending on the profile. This is a little variation of the above solution. See A Maven2 multi-environment filter setup for an example.