Where is the list of predefined Maven properties

I think the best place to look is the Super POM.

As an example, at the time of writing, the linked reference shows some of the properties between lines 32 - 48.

The interpretation of this is to follow the XPath as a . delimited property.

So, for example:

${project.build.testOutputDirectory} == ${project.build.directory}/test-classes

And:

${project.build.directory} == ${project.basedir}/target

Thus combining them, we find:

${project.build.testOutputDirectory} == ${project.basedir}/target/test-classes

(To reference the resources directory(s), see this stackoverflow question)

---

<project>
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    .
    .
    .
    <build>
        <directory>${project.basedir}/target</directory>
        <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/classes</outputDirectory>
        <finalName>${project.artifactId}-${project.version}</finalName>
        <testOutputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/test-classes</testOutputDirectory>
        <sourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/main/java</sourceDirectory>
        <scriptSourceDirectory>src/main/scripts</scriptSourceDirectory>
        <testSourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/test/java</testSourceDirectory>
        <resources>
            <resource>
                <directory>${project.basedir}/src/main/resources</directory>
            </resource>
        </resources>
        <testResources>
            <testResource>
                <directory>${project.basedir}/src/test/resources</directory>
            </testResource>
        </testResources>
        .
        .
        .
    </build>
    .
    .
    .
</project>

Take a look at section 9.2.: Maven Properties of the free online book Maven: The Complete Reference.

Looking at the "effective POM" will probably help too. For instance, if you wanted to know what the path is for ${project.build.sourceDirectory}

you would find the related XML in the effective POM, such as: <project> <build> <sourceDirectory>/my/path</sourceDirectory>

Also helpful - you can do a real time evaluation of properties via the command line execution of mvn help:evaluate while in the same dir as the POM.

Do you mean this one?

https://web.archive.org/web/20150520200505/https://docs.codehaus.org/display/MAVENUSER/MavenPropertiesGuide

I also moved its content to a GitHub repo:

https://github.com/cko/predefined_maven_properties/blob/master/README.md