Maven : Is it possible to override the configuration of a plugin already defined for a profile in a parent POM

Question

In a POM parent file of my project, I have such a profile defining some configurations useful for this project (so that I can't get rid of this parent POM) :

     <profile>
  <id>wls7</id>
                    ...
  <build>
   <plugins>
    <!-- use java 1.4 -->
    <plugin>
     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
     <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
     <configuration>
      <fork>true</fork>
      <source>1.4</source>
      <target>1.4</target>
      <meminitial>128m</meminitial>
      <maxmem>1024m</maxmem>
      <executable>%${jdk14.executable}</executable>
     </configuration>
    </plugin>
   </plugins>
  </build>

                    ...
 </profile>

But in my project I just would like to override the configuration of the maven-compiler-plugin in order to use jdk5 instead of jdk4 for compiling test-classes.

That's why I did this section in the POM of my project :

    <profiles>
 <profile>
  <id>wls7</id>
        <activation>
            <property>
                <name>jdk</name>
                <value>4</value>
            </property>
        </activation>
  <build>
   <directory>target-1.4</directory>
   <plugins>
    <plugin>
     <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
     <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
     <executions>
      <execution>
       <id>my-testCompile</id>
       <phase>test-compile</phase>
       <goals>
        <goal>testCompile</goal>
       </goals>
       <configuration>
        <fork>true</fork>
        <executable>${jdk15.executable}</executable>
        <compilerVersion>1.5</compilerVersion>
        <source>1.5</source>
        <target>1.5</target>
        <verbose>true</verbose>
       </configuration>
      </execution>
     </executions>
    </plugin>
   </plugins>
  </build>
 </profile>
            ...
</profiles>

and it's not working ...

I even tried to override the configuration in regular plugin sections of my POM (I mean, not for a specific profile but for my whole POM).

What could be the problem ?

To clarify some of my requirements :

• I don't want to get rid of the parent POM and the profile (wls7) defined inside it (since I need many and many properties, configurations, ...) and that is not the process in my company.
• A solution based on duplicating the parent POM and/or the profile defined inside it is not a good one. Since if the responsible of
  the parent POM change something, I
  would have to report it in mine.

It's just an inheritance matter (extend or override a profile, a configuration from an upper-level POM) so I think it should be possible with maven2.

Answer 1

Did you try to deactivate the wls7 profile (since maven 2.0.10):

Starting with Maven 2.0.10, one or more profiles can be deactivated using the command line by prefixing their identifier with either the character '!' or '-' as shown below:

mvn groupId:artifactId:goal -P !profile-1,!profile-2

This can be used to deactivate profiles marked as activeByDefault or profiles that would otherwise be activated through their activation config.

And then add your configuration in a profile with a different name or directly in your pom.xml.