Profiles

Profiles provide the if-else conditional behaviours of the POM . It is basically aimed towards configuring your build and allows for different builds depending on the its properties. A couple of the usual properties used are the JDK, the OS ( Operating System )and the operating system. Furthermore, Profiles profiles can be activated depending on whether a particular file exists or notthe existence of particular files.

Generic Property Activation

...

To activate a profile when a certain property has a certain value (in this case myproperty=myvalue):

<profiles>
  <profile>
    <activation>
      <property>
        <name>myproperty</name>
        <value>myvalue</value>
      </property>
    </activation>
    ...
  </profile>
  ...
</profiles>

To activate a profile when a certain property exists (regardless of value):

<profiles>
  <profile>
    <activation>
      <property>
        <name>myproperty</name>
      </property>
    </activation>
    ...
  </profile>
  ...
</profiles>

...

To configure the activation via the operating system, you can specify at least one out of four (4) things - items - the project name, family, architecture, and version.

The Profile OS Activation part looks like this activation part is shown below:

<profiles>
  <profile>
    <activation>
      <os>
        <name>windows xp</name>
        <family>windows</family>
        <arch>x86</arch>
        <version>5.1</version>
      </os>
    </activation>
    ...
  </profile>
  ...
</profiles>

...

File Activation 

To activate when a certaint file existsControlling activation upon the existence of specific files:

<profiles>
  <profile>
    <activation>
      <file>
        <exists>myfile</exists>
      </file>
    </activation>
    ...
  </profile>
  ...
</profiles>

To activate when a certaint file does not existControlling activation upon the absence of specific files:

<profiles>
  <profile>
    <activation>
      <missing>
        <exists>myfile</exists>
      </missing>
    </activation>
    ...
  </profile>
  ...
</profiles>

...

Prepend "!" on property name, os family, os name, os version and os arch to negate.

Meaning

<profiles>
  <profile>
    <activation>
      <property>
        <name>!myproperty</name>
      </property>
    </activation>
    ...
  </profile>
  ...
</profiles>

gets executed when myproperty is not defined. And

<profiles>
  <profile>
    <activation>
      <os>
        <name>!windows xp</name>
        <family>!windows</family>
        <arch>!x86</arch>
        <version>!5.1</version>
      </os>
    </activation>
    ...
  </profile>
  ...
</profiles>

gets evaluated as true when

name != "windows xp" AND family != "windows" AND arch != "x86" AND version != 5.1

Active by Default 

Set to true to activate  activate by default