Usage

Once the extension is activated, the cache kicks in automatically. By default, compile-phase builds (mvn compile, mvn test-compile) are cached in addition to package and later phases. Set -Dmaven.build.cache.cacheCompile=false to restrict caching to the package phase and above.

Single goal invocations

Goals invoked directly from the command line (e.g. mvn compiler:compile, mvn resources:resources) are also cached when their default lifecycle phase is a real, post-clean phase — such an invocation behaves like running that phase. Goals with no default phase (e.g. jetty:run, exec:java) and mixed lifecycle+CLI invocations (e.g. mvn package dependency:tree) are left untouched and simply run. This can be disabled with -Dmaven.build.cache.cacheSingleGoal=false.

Forked lifecycle restore

Some goals fork a prerequisite lifecycle before running — for example jetty:run and spring-boot:run fork test-compile so the application is compiled before the server starts. When such a goal is invoked directly, the forked lifecycle restores previously cached outputs instead of recompiling (it never saves a cache entry of its own). This is effective with the default singlethreaded builder and with multithreaded (-T); it does not apply to the concurrent builder. Disable it with -Dmaven.build.cache.restoreForkedExecutions=false.

Subtree builds

The build could be invoked on any module in the project and will try to discover the cache by introspecting dependencies. In order to identify which dependencies are cacheable, the cache introspects the following:

Project root location passed with -Dmaven.multiModuleProjectDirectory
Profiles that activate full graph in the project build. The cache uses this full mode to categorize project modules as cacheable or not:


<configuration>
    ...
    <multiModule>
        <discovery>
            <scanProfiles>
                <scanProfile>my-full-project-profile</scanProfile>
            </scanProfiles>
        </discovery>
    </multiModule>
    ...
</configuration>

Disable cache

Disable in config:


<cache>
    <configuration>
        <enabled>false</enabled>
    </configuration>
</cache>

On the command line:

-Dmaven.build.cache.enabled=false

When a configuration is disabled by default in the config, it can be enabled via the command line with:

-Dmaven.build.cache.enabled=true

IDE support

Build cache extension is generally compatible with IDEs with one limitation:

The cache doesn't restore the entire project state. Compiled classes, unpacked artifacts, and similar ones typically will not be restored in the build directory (aka target). Configure your IDE to not use Maven build (target) directories for compilation and execution. In that case, IDE will provide fast compilation using native caches, and the build cache will supplement that with fast builds.