Maven plugin should not need <extension>true</extension>

[jakub-bochenski]

I don't see the maven plugin doing anything that would require it to be an extension.

The main use case for declaring a plugin as an extension is:

plug-ins which provide lifecycle enhancements.

https://maven.apache.org/guides/mini/guide-using-extensions.html

On the other hand extension plugins can be very powerful -- which means they could be doing anything. And this makes the build significantly harder to understand.

If I remove the extension attribute the plugin no longer executes it's goals.

Using the extension mechanism just to register some executions (=save typing) it's wrong.

The documentation should explain why is the extension needed for.

If you want to keep using the extension to save typing, the documentation should also show how to configure the plugin manually without extensions.

[jakub-bochenski]

In my case I changed the <extension>true</extension>
to

                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>generate-tests</id>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>generateTests</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>

Not only I can now understand the build just by reading the POM file. As a bonus I got rid of the convert and generateStubs executions that I had no use for.

[marcingrzejszczak]

Hey, thank you for the feedback.

Nobody requires you to use the extensions. It's not mandatory to set them. If you don't want to set them just attach your executions to whatever phase you want.

Are you willing to file a PR to patch the documentation?

[jakub-bochenski]

Sure, if you can point me to where the sources are - I can't seem to find them