The Resources Plugin handles the copying of project resources to the output directory. There are two different kinds of resources: main resources and test resources. The difference is that the main resources are the resources associated to the main source code while the test resources are associated to the test source code.
Thus, this allows the separation of resources for the main source code and its unit tests.
Starting with version 2.3 this plugin uses the Maven Filtering shared component for filtering resources.
The Resources Plugin copies files specified by Resource elements, to an output directory. The three variations below only differ in how the resource and output directory elements are specified or defaulted. The Resources Plugin has three goals:
This goal usually executes automatically, because it is bound by default to the process-resources life-cycle phase. It always uses the project.build.resources element to specify the resources, and by default uses the project.build.outputDirectory to specify the copy destination.
This goal usually executes automatically, because it is bound by default to the process-test-resources life-cycle phase. It always uses the project.build.testResources element to specify the resources, and by default uses the project.build.testOutputDirectory to specify the copy destination.
This goal requires that you configure the resources to be copied, and specify the outputDirectory.
General instructions on how to use the Resources Plugin can be found on the usage page. Some more specific use cases are described in the examples given below. Last but not least, users occasionally contribute additional examples, tips or errata to the plugin's wiki page.
In case you still have questions regarding the plugin's usage, please have a look at the FAQ and feel free to contact the user mailing list. The posts to the mailing list are archived and could already contain the answer to your question as part of an older thread. Hence, it is also worth browsing/searching the mail archive.
If you feel like the plugin is missing a feature or has a defect, you can fill a feature request or bug report in our issue tracker. When creating a new issue, please provide a comprehensive description of your concern. Especially for fixing bugs it is crucial that the developers can reproduce your problem. For this reason, entire debug logs, POMs or most preferably little demo projects attached to the issue are very much appreciated. Of course, patches are welcome, too. Contributors can check out the project from our source repository and will find supplementary information in the guide to helping with Maven.