Maven Properties Reference: project.*, settings.*, env.*, and Custom POM Values

Maven properties let you reuse values across your build, parent POMs, profiles, plugins, and CI commands. This guide organizes the major property types, shows how interpolation works, and gives practical commands to inspect effective values.

Originally published on 2010-04-14; fully revised and updated.

How Maven resolves properties

Maven interpolates property expressions (for example, values like ${project.version}) from multiple sources: the project model, parent model, settings, environment variables, JVM system properties, and user-defined values. In practice, this is what allows the same POM to behave correctly on local machines and CI agents.

flowchart TD
    A[Read pom.xml] --> B[Load parent and super POM]
    B --> C[Read active settings and profiles]
    C --> D[Read JVM and environment values]
    D --> E[Interpolate property expressions]
    E --> F[Resolved values used by plugins and packaging]

The exact effective value can vary by active profile, command-line flags, and plugin behavior, so validation with Maven CLI commands is important before relying on a property in release automation.

Property sources compared

Use this as a quick decision table when choosing where a value should come from.

Frequently used property expressions

Project and build values

• ${basedir}
• ${project.name}
• ${project.version}
• ${project.build.directory}
• ${project.build.outputDirectory}
• ${project.build.finalName}

Settings, environment, and JVM values

• ${settings.localRepository}
• ${env.M2_HOME}
• ${java.version}
• ${java.home}
• ${user.home}

Parent POM values

Parent values are accessed through the project model (for example, ${project.parent.version}). For object-level context, the original post referenced the MavenProject API: org.apache.maven.project.MavenProject.

• ${project.parent.groupId}
• ${project.parent.artifactId}
• ${project.parent.version}

Define and override custom properties

Define team-owned values once in <properties>, then reference them throughout plugins, resources, and build metadata.

<project>
  <properties>
    <my.filter.value>hello</my.filter.value>
    <artifact.suffix>internal</artifact.suffix>
  </properties>

  <build>
    <finalName>${project.artifactId}-${project.version}-${artifact.suffix}</finalName>
  </build>
</project>Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

You can override a custom property at runtime from the command line, which is common in CI pipelines.

mvn clean package -Dartifact.suffix=ci

Inspect effective values from the CLI

When in doubt, ask Maven directly for the evaluated result of a property expression.

mvn help:evaluate -Dexpression=project.version
mvn help:evaluate -Dexpression=project.build.directory
mvn help:evaluate -Dexpression=settings.localRepository
mvn help:evaluate -Dexpression=env.M2_HOME

To understand inherited values and profile effects, inspect the effective POM.

mvn help:effective-pomCode language: CSS (css)

Common pitfalls and best practices

• Prefer explicit ${project.*} expressions for readability in modern builds.
• Do not assume environment variables exist on every developer machine or CI runner.
• Validate key properties with help:evaluate before release or deployment jobs.
• Use custom properties for team conventions, then allow CI overrides with -D only where needed.
• Be careful with older aliases and legacy examples from Maven 2-era posts.
• In multi-module projects, confirm parent-derived values from the effective POM, not by assumption.

Rajesh Kumar

I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.

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