[MNG-4946] Let the order of profiles in `mvn -P...` determine their order in effective POM

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Incomplete
• Affects Version/s: 2.2.1
• Component/s: Artifacts and Repositories
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Ondra Žižka
• Created: 18/Dec/10 18:20
• Updated: 06/Apr/15 00:47
• Resolved: 22/Jan/14 20:31

Description

Currently, the order of profile references on the command line does not affect the order in which they are merged to the effective POM.

Easy test:
1) Create two profiles in settings-test.xml, say profA and profB
2) add a repository to each, say repoA, repoB
3) run `mvn -s settings-test.xml -PprofA,profB help:effective-pom`
4) run `mvn -s settings-test.xml -PprofB,profA help:effective-pom`
You will see that the order of repositories is not affected by the order of profiles after -P.

This behavior is not documented, AFAICT, so changing it shouldn't be considered as breaking backward compatibility.

A possibility to determine the order in which profiles are applied would be a great improvement since it would allow changing the build dramatically just by slightly changing the command.

Issue Links

• is related to: MNG-2309 Profile activation order is random
• is related to: MNG-4741 Priority for profiles activated by property or -P unclear
• is related to: MNGSITE-124 Better documentation related to repository order