Maven define goal dependencies, run initialize before versions:set - maven

Question

I'm including a newVersion propery form an external file using:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>properties-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.0-alpha-2</version>
<!-- Read in newVersion.properties instead of newVersion property -->
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>validate</phase>
<goals>
<goal>read-project-properties</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<files>
<file>${session.executionRootDirectory}/newVersion.properties</file>
</files>
</configuration>
</execution>
</plugin>
I'm also using versions:set to set the new version of the code from a CI build.
This works if I run:
mvn -DBUILD_NUMBER=99 initialize versions:set
IOW, I need to specify the "initialize" goal explicitly or it stops and prompts me for the newVersion because it defaults to running the versions:set goal before initialize goal.
How can I define the initialize goal as a dependency of the versions:set goal?
IMO I should not need to define intermediate target ordering.
Note, I know I could use the versions plugin to do all of this but I need to manage gradle and maven versions from a parent gradle script, so I need the base newVersion to come from an external source so that I can use it from multiple build environments.

Answer 1

Re mvn ... initialize ... – You bound the read-project-properties goal of the properties-maven-plugin to the validate phase, so mvn validate should be sufficient. (Introduction to the Build Lifecycle, Default Lifecycle).
Invoking mvn ... versions:set without any phase executes the set goal of the versions plugin directly without passing through (any phase of) the default lifecycle. That means it doesn't „default to running the versions:set goal before initialize“, it doesn't pass the initialize phase (initialize is a phase not a goal) at all.
And there's also the following at Versions Maven Plugin, Basic Usage:
Maven 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 and 3.0 do not currently support re-reading modifications of the pom.xml within one invocation of Maven.
The following goals:
versions:set
...
modify the pom.xml file, you need to run these goals separately from any other goals or life-cycle phases.
I'm not aware of any way to define a phase as dependency of a goal but you can declare:
<build>
<defaultGoal>...</defaultGoal>
defaultGoal: the default goal or phase to execute if none is given. If a goal is given, it should be defined as it is in the command line (such as jar:jar). The same goes for if a phase is defined (such as install).
See POM Reference, The BaseBuild Element Set.