Maven command to list lifecycle phases along with bound goals?

The buildplan-maven-plugin is an excellent tool for showing how goals are bound to phases.

Below are examples of commands you can run. The commands will automatically download and install the plugin if it hasn't already been installed.

List goals by the order they will execute

> mvn fr.jcgay.maven.plugins:buildplan-maven-plugin:list

PLUGIN                  | PHASE                  | ID                    | GOAL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
maven-enforcer-plugin   | validate               | default               | enforce
maven-dependency-plugin | process-sources        | default               | copy-dependencies
maven-resources-plugin  | process-resources      | default-resources     | resources
maven-compiler-plugin   | compile                | default-compile       | compile
maven-resources-plugin  | process-test-resources | default-testResources | testResources
maven-compiler-plugin   | test-compile           | default-testCompile   | testCompile
maven-surefire-plugin   | test                   | default-test          | test
maven-jar-plugin        | package                | default-jar           | jar
maven-assembly-plugin   | package                | make-assembly         | single
maven-install-plugin    | install                | default-install       | install
maven-deploy-plugin     | deploy                 | default-deploy        | deploy

Group goals by phase

> mvn fr.jcgay.maven.plugins:buildplan-maven-plugin:list-phase

validate -----------------------------------------------------------------
    + maven-enforcer-plugin   | default               | enforce
process-sources ----------------------------------------------------------
    + maven-dependency-plugin | default               | copy-dependencies
process-resources --------------------------------------------------------
    + maven-resources-plugin  | default-resources     | resources
compile ------------------------------------------------------------------
    + maven-compiler-plugin   | default-compile       | compile
process-test-resources ---------------------------------------------------
    + maven-resources-plugin  | default-testResources | testResources
test-compile -------------------------------------------------------------
    + maven-compiler-plugin   | default-testCompile   | testCompile
test ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    + maven-surefire-plugin   | default-test          | test
package ------------------------------------------------------------------
    + maven-jar-plugin        | default-jar           | jar
    + maven-assembly-plugin   | make-assembly         | single
install ------------------------------------------------------------------
    + maven-install-plugin    | default-install       | install
deploy -------------------------------------------------------------------
    + maven-deploy-plugin     | default-deploy        | deploy

Group goals by plugin

> mvn fr.jcgay.maven.plugins:buildplan-maven-plugin:list-plugin

maven-enforcer-plugin ---------------------------------------------------
    + validate               | default               | enforce
maven-dependency-plugin -------------------------------------------------
    + process-sources        | default               | copy-dependencies
maven-resources-plugin --------------------------------------------------
    + process-resources      | default-resources     | resources
    + process-test-resources | default-testResources | testResources
maven-compiler-plugin ---------------------------------------------------
    + compile                | default-compile       | compile
    + test-compile           | default-testCompile   | testCompile
maven-surefire-plugin ---------------------------------------------------
    + test                   | default-test          | test
maven-jar-plugin --------------------------------------------------------
    + package                | default-jar           | jar
maven-assembly-plugin ---------------------------------------------------
    + package                | make-assembly         | single
maven-install-plugin ----------------------------------------------------
    + install                | default-install       | install
maven-deploy-plugin -----------------------------------------------------
    + deploy                 | default-deploy        | deploy

Notes

By default, the goals search for tasks that would run if the user invoked mvn deploy. Phases such as clean won't be included. To include multiple phases in the search, use the buildplan.tasks property:

> mvn fr.jcgay.maven.plugins:buildplan-maven-plugin:list -Dbuildplan.tasks=clean,deploy

mvn help:describe -Dcmd=compile (or any other valid phase)

If not with Maven but using m2e you can do it using the code block that you can use in a Eclipse plugin:

---

final IMavenProjectRegistry projectRegistry = MavenPlugin.getMavenProjectRegistry();
    final IMavenProjectFacade facade = projectRegistry.getProject(project);
    projectRegistry.execute(facade, new ICallable<Void>() {
        public Void call(IMavenExecutionContext context, IProgressMonitor monitor) throws CoreException {
            MavenProject mavenProject = facade.getMavenProject(monitor);
            List<MojoExecution> mojoExecutions = ((MavenProjectFacade) facade).getMojoExecutions(monitor);
            LifecycleMappingResult mappingResult = LifecycleMappingFactory.calculateLifecycleMapping(
                    mavenProject, mojoExecutions, facade.getResolverConfiguration().getLifecycleMappingId(),
                    monitor);
            Map<MojoExecutionKey, List<IPluginExecutionMetadata>> mojoExecutionMapping = mappingResult
                    .getMojoExecutionMapping();

            Map<String, List<MojoExecutionKey>> phases = new LinkedHashMap<String, List<MojoExecutionKey>>();
            for (MojoExecutionKey execution : mojoExecutionMapping.keySet()) {
                List<MojoExecutionKey> executions = phases.get(execution.getLifecyclePhase());
                if (executions == null) {
                    executions = new ArrayList<MojoExecutionKey>();
                    phases.put(execution.getLifecyclePhase(), executions);

                    }
                    executions.add(execution);
                }

---

Look at full source.

Already implemented in:

http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/phases-and-goals

It makes use of m2e's ability to compute the association of goals with phases. I am also trying to solve it at maven level.

One tool that helps is mvn help:effective-pom It will print the POM with all variables and all parent POMs expanded. This helps to understand what Maven sees. From that, it's pretty simple to find all the additional goals (which usually aren't that many).

The bigger problem is the implicit goals (i.e. when a plugin hooks itself to some phases of the lifecycle automatically). There is no easy way to see these without actually running Maven. This should become better in Maven 3. Until then, run Maven with -X which will print a whole lot of debug output plus the current phase and which plugins are executed.