You can configure checkstyle by creating/importing your Checkstyle Check Configuration in Eclipse and then in your pom specify:
See the example below, make sure you specify the correct value in check-config-name.
<project> [...] <build> [...] <plugins> [...] <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-eclipse-plugin</artifactId> <version>2.10</version> <configuration> <additionalBuildcommands> <buildcommand>com.atlassw.tools.eclipse.checkstyle.CheckstyleBuilder</buildcommand> </additionalBuildcommands> <additionalProjectnatures> <projectnature>com.atlassw.tools.eclipse.checkstyle.CheckstyleNature</projectnature> </additionalProjectnatures> <additionalConfig> <file> <name>.checkstyle</name> <content> <![CDATA[<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <fileset-config file-format-version="1.2.0" simple-config="true"> <fileset name="all" enabled="true" check-config-name="<YOUR CHECKSTYLE CONFIG NAME HERE>" local="false"> <file-match-pattern match-pattern="." include-pattern="true"/> </fileset> <filter name="NonSrcDirs" enabled="true"/> </fileset-config> ]]> </content> </file> </additionalConfig> </configuration> </plugin> [...] </plugins> [...] </build> [...] </project>