Configuring Generation of Plugin Descriptor

To configure the generation of the plugin descriptor, add the following to the project's POM:

<project>
  ...
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-plugin-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.3</version>
        <configuration>
          <goalPrefix>plugin</goalPrefix>
          <outputDirectory>target/dir</outputDirectory>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  ...
  </build>
  ...
</project>

The goalPrefix parameter will set the goal prefix for the plugin that is specified in the descriptor. The outputDirectory parameter, on the other hand, specifies the target location of the generated plugin descriptor.

Example

For instance, if we make reference on MyMojo from maven-my-plugin which is generated by the Maven Archetype Plugin, i.e.:

mvn archetype:create \
  -DgroupId=org.apache.maven.plugin.my \
  -DartifactId=maven-my-plugin \
  -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-mojo

The plugin descriptor generated by mvn package should be:

<plugin>
  <description></description>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugin.my</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-my-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <goalPrefix>my</goalPrefix>
  <isolatedRealm>false</isolatedRealm>
  <inheritedByDefault>true</inheritedByDefault>
  <mojos>
    <mojo>
      <goal>touch</goal>
      <description>Goal which touches a timestamp file.</description>
      <requiresDirectInvocation>false</requiresDirectInvocation>
      <requiresProject>true</requiresProject>
      <requiresReports>false</requiresReports>
      <aggregator>false</aggregator>
      <requiresOnline>false</requiresOnline>
      <inheritedByDefault>true</inheritedByDefault>
      <phase>process-sources</phase>
      <implementation>org.apache.maven.plugin.my.MyMojo</implementation>
      <language>java</language>
      <instantiationStrategy>per-lookup</instantiationStrategy>
      <executionStrategy>once-per-session</executionStrategy>
      <parameters>
        <parameter>
          <name>outputDirectory</name>
          <type>java.io.File</type>
          <required>true</required>
          <editable>true</editable>
          <description>Location of the file.</description>
        </parameter>
      </parameters>
      <configuration>
        <outputDirectory implementation="java.io.File">${project.build.directory}</outputDirectory>
      </configuration>
    </mojo>
  </mojos>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
      <artifactId>maven-plugin-api</artifactId>
      <type>jar</type>
      <version>2.0</version>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</plugin>