[MPH-30] help:describe should accept "cmd" argument

• Type: New Feature
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 2.1
• Assignee: Siveton Vincent
• Reporter: Daniel Fabulich
• Created: 04/Feb/08 17:08
• Updated: 05/Aug/08 07:35
• Resolved: 01/Aug/08 18:39

Description

In a lot of cases, people want help about Maven commands without really knowing exactly what their plugin's artifactId/groupId is. Many people at my work are perennially unclear about the distinction between a lifecycle phase like "compile" and a plugin goal like "compiler:compile".

help:describe should allow the user to specify an arbitrary command with "cmd", they could then type "mvn help:describe -Dcmd=install" to get information about the install lifecycle phase, or "mvn help:describe -Dcmd=compiler:compile" to get information about the compiler plugin's compile goal.

Issue Links

• relates to: MPH-34 Add a new help goal that describes the current lifecycle bindings
• relates to: MPH-36 List of plugins used by a POM
• relates to: MPH-15 help:describe should accept plugin prefix or prefix:goal