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

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/