Checkstyle uses unpredictable config file - maven

Question

We have a maven project which includes checkstyle as well as pmd as analysers.
The problem is checkstyle sometimes takes my configured and modified google_checks.xml file, sometimes it uses a vanilla goole_checks.xml file and throws checkstyle errors, which are valid for the file it uses but I have no idea where it gets that file from. My pom looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<properties>
<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
<maven.compiler.source>1.7</maven.compiler.source>
<maven.compiler.target>1.7</maven.compiler.target>
</properties>
<build>
<pluginManagement>
<plugins>
<!-- checkstyle -->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0</version>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.8.0</version>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.7.1</version>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-project-info-reports-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0</version>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</pluginManagement>
<plugins>
<!-- google checks -->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>validate</id>
<phase>validate</phase>
<configuration>
<configLocation>google_checks.xml</configLocation>
<encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
<consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
<failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
<violationSeverity>warning</violationSeverity>
</configuration>
<goals>
<goal>check</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.puppycrawl.tools</groupId>
<artifactId>checkstyle</artifactId>
<version>8.20</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-pmd-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.12.0</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>validate</id>
<phase>validate</phase>
<configuration>
<failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
<printFailingErrors>true</printFailingErrors>
</configuration>
<goals>
<goal>check</goal>
<goal>cpd-check</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
<reporting>
<plugins>
<!-- PMD -->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-pmd-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.12.0</version>
<configuration>
<failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<!-- JXR -->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-jxr-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0</version>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</reporting>
</project>
I removed some parts from the pom that are unrelevant I think.
The full project lies here: https://code.toold.xyz/Hochschule/WebAnServer/src/branch/mavenSetup/CueBox_source
When first executing a mvn clean it works reliably, but when I do a mvn compile and then without changing anything do a mvn compile again. It sometimes throws a lot of errors, about indents... which I removed from the google_checks.xml. It creates a checkstyle-checker.xml in the target folder, and it sometimes contains stuff that isn't in my google_checks.xml file, it looks more like the original google_checks.xml file.
Do you have any idea what causes this problem?

Answer 1

It seems like the issue was with the name google_checks.xml I renamed it and tested it now it works flawless all the time. It seems like maven interpreted the google_checks.xml not as a file name but as a refernce and downloaded it or extracted it from somewhere
If someone is here that knows exactly if this happened... please explain, I'll accept your answer :)