Run mvn spring-boot:run from parent module? - spring-boot

Question

I have a multi-module maven project like this:
my-parent
--my-domain
--my-service
--my-app <<< this is a Spring Boot module
I want to run mvn spring-boot:run command directly from the parent module without having to cd into the 'my-app' directory first.
I figure this is related to configuration of the spring-boot-maven-plugin but I can't seem to get it right.
I have tried the following:
Use spring-boot-starter-parent and otherwise default config with spring-boot-maven-plugin included in plugins section of my-app.
Running mvn spring-boot:run from the parent results in:
Failed to execute goal org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-maven-plugin:1.4.2.RELEASE:run (default-cli) on project my-parent: Unable to find a suitable main class, please add a 'mainClass' property -> [Help 1] in the parent module
Do NOT use spring-boot-starter-parent.
Define spring-boot-dependencies in depManagement as described elewhere. Define spring-boot-maven-plugin in pluginManagement section of my-parent and include the plugin in plugins section of my-app module.
Running mvn spring-boot:run from the parent results in same error as #1:
Failed to execute goal org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-maven-plugin:1.4.2.RELEASE:run (default-cli) on project my-parent: Unable to find a suitable main class, please add a 'mainClass' property -> [Help 1]
Do NOT use spring-boot-starter-parent.
Define spring-boot-dependencies in depManagement as described elewhere. Define spring-boot-maven-plugin in plugins section of my-app.
Running mvn spring-boot:run from the parent results in:
No plugin found for prefix 'spring-boot' in the current project and in the plugin groups
In all cases described above, running mvn spring-boot:run from the my-app directory works fine.
I figure there should be a way to make this work. In a traditional non-Boot Spring project it was fairly simple to configure tomcat7 plugin such that i could run mvn tomcat7:run-war from the parent and the webapp sub-module would start as expected

Answer 1

You can do it by adding following In parent pom:
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<skip>true</skip>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
And in your
In my-app (Spring Boot module) pom:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<fork>true</fork>
<skip>false</skip>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<goals>
<goal>repackage</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
Now you can do execute in project root:
mvn -pl my-app -am spring-boot:run
Additional references:
spring-boot:run hot reload with multi module maven project · Issue #3436 · spring-projects/spring-boot · GitHub: in particular, this comment.

Answer 2

spring-boot maven plugin configuration options:
skip: skips the execution of sprint-boot:run [default: false]
fork: Flag to indicate if the run processes should be forked [default: true]
see spring-boot maven plugin parameters
maven options:
-pl, --projects: Comma-delimited list of specified reactor projects to build instead of all projects. A project can be specified by [groupId]:artifactId or by its relative path
-am, --also-make: If project list is specified, also build projects required by the list
see maven CLI options