Can I bundle import-control file for checkstyle for use in all projects using our checkstyle? - maven

Question

I am trying to add import-control to our checkstyle in such a way that the import-control file exists in the project making the checstyle.xml file and not in the projects we build later on.
We have a specific gradle project where we define all our rules and it is in this project our import-control.xml. My issue is that when I try to run mvn clean install on another project that uses this checkstyle it tries to locate import-control.xml in that project.
I did the following configuration in the checkstyle.xml:
<module name="ImportControl">
<property name="file" value="import-control.xml"/>
</module>
and the import-control.xml is placed next to checkstyle.xml.
Can anyone tell me what I need to do so that I can tell maven that this file exists in our checkstyle project and not in the root project that is being built?
Errors I have gotten are:
Cannot initialize module TreeWalker - cannot initialize module ImportControl - illegal value 'import-control.xml' for property 'file' Unable to find: import-control.xml
In v 2.17
Unable to load import-control.xml: unable to find file:/C://import-control.xml: \import-control.xml
What I have tried:
Upgrade checkstyle version to 3.1.0 (we used to have 2.17)
Use import-control.xml but didn't work.
Tried to read documentation and code but to no help.
Thanks for any help
Write you later / Mårten
mvn configuration:
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.1.0</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>do checkstyle</id>
<phase>process-sources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>check</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
<configuration>
<includes>projectA/**/*</includes>
<configLocation>checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
<consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
<failOnViolation>false</failOnViolation>
<failsOnError>true</failsOnError>
<includeTestSourceDirectory>true</includeTestSourceDirectory>
</configuration>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>company.checkstyle</groupId>
<artifactId>company-checkstyle</artifactId>
<version>0.2-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</pluginManagement>```

Answer 1

Thanks again barfuin, it seemed like ${config_loc} was the answer but we needed one more thing for it to fully work.
So, for adding resources from the checkstyle project, as in this file an import_control.xml I did as follow in my checkstyle.xml:
<module name="ImportControl">
<property name="file" value="${config_loc}/config/import_control.xml"/>
</module>
What I also needed to do was to add:
<propertyExpansion>config_loc=</propertyExpansion>
in my pom.xml configuration, this solved the issue with config_loc not being defined and for checkstyle to find the file as a resource and gave me the following pom.xml configuration:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>do checkstyle</id>
<phase>process-sources</phase>
<goals>
<goal>check</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
<configuration>
<includes>projectA/**/*</includes>
<configLocation>checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
<consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
<failOnViolation>false</failOnViolation>
<failsOnError>true</failsOnError>
<includeTestSourceDirectory>true</includeTestSourceDirectory>
<propertyExpansion>config_loc=</propertyExpansion>
</configuration>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>company.checkstyle</groupId>
<artifactId>company-checkstyle</artifactId>
<version>0.2-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</plugin>
</plugins>