Maven: How to confine the application output to the target directory - maven

Question

I have a java application that uses maven for build management.
When I run the generated application jar with
java -jar myjar
the output files generated by the application end up in the projects root directory. So if I execute the jar in /my/project/dir and create a filewriter to write to logs/mylog
The resulting file ends up in
/my/project/dir/logs/mylog
Exactly as expected.
HOWEVER:
When maven surefire plugin executes the unit tests, the files end up in the module directory.
Say that i compile a maven project in /my/module.
The compiled files end up in /my/module/target/classes.
When maven executes these classes, through unit tests, the output of the same classes ends up in
/my/module/logs/mylog
I would like the files to end up in the target dir like
/my/module/target/logs/mylog
As this is where the class files reside.
So I am looking for a way to configure maven surefire to define the java classes' root directory to point to target instead of the module dir.
EDIT:
I have found this post:
Maven: change the directory in which tests are executed
That seems to attempt a fix to my problem. However, if i set the workingdirectory to my target dir, the tests can no longer find my resources, even if they are copied from the modules ${basedir} to ${basedir}/target

Answer 1

You should set your application working dir to ./target (or in a Maven property way: ${project.build.directory})

Answer 2

Solution:
By default, the maven surefire plugin executes its tests in the modules main directory.
In order to avoid this, set the workingdirectory of the plugin to the target directory.
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>...</version>
<configuration>
<workingDirectory>${project.build.directory}</workingDirectory>
<basedir>${project.build.directory}</basedir>
</configuration>
</plugin>
Note that in case of tests that rely on some resources with root in the modules basedir, you need to copy these over. The easiest way i can find is with the resource plugin.
<build>
<resources>
<resource>
<directory>dependency</directory>
<targetPath>${project.build.directory}/dependency</targetPath>
</resource>
...
</build>

Answer 3

I can't tell you exactly how to do what you need to do because there is no real information
I can give you a hint about what to look at using.
Maven profiles can change the source, and behavior of Maven when they are selectively enabled.
Profiles are specifically designed to do just what you want to do.