How do I upgrade the version of a maven plugin?

Question

I am using the maven-ear-plugin version 2.3.1 - I know there is a new version available: http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-ear-plugin/

I can't work out how to upgrade to the latest version??

Answer 1

The default plugin versions are inherited from the Super POM, and you can check them with mvn help:effective-pom.

If you want to override the version provided there, add this to your POM:

<project>
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-ear-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.3.1</version>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

Replace the version with what you need.

Answer 2

Some maven plugins are restricted to maven versions. For example, generally projects around here use Maven 2.0.4, which is restricted to use the war plugin 2.0.2 - this works with overlays. The 2.1-alpha whatever, however, that Maven 2.0.9 uses, does not - so we had to manually downgrade. Maven, unless otherwise instructed, will attempt to use the latest version of a plugin that it can according to its version.

Answer 3

How the version of a plugin is selected, along with discussion about the plugin versions in the superpom is covered in detail here.

Actually the currently selected answer isn't quite right. It should be

<project>
  <build>
   <pluginManagement>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-ear-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.3.1</version>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
   </pluginManagement>
  </build>
</project>

I explained why here.