Using The aggregate Goals

The <aggregate/> parameter doesn't make sure, that the project is compiled before executing PMD which might lead to wrong results. Therefore the report goals aggregate-pmd and aggregate-cpd have been introduced. You could define these goals in the <build/> element (using the <execution/> tag) or <reporting/> element (using the <reportSet/> tag) as shown below.

<project>
 ...
 <build>
 <plugins>
 <plugin>
 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
 <artifactId>maven-pmd-plugin</artifactId>
 <version>3.28.0</version>
 <configuration>
 <!-- Default configuration for all reports -->
 ...
 </configuration>
 <executions>
 <execution>
 <id>aggregate</id>
 <goals>
 <goal>aggregate-pmd</goal>
 <goal>aggregate-cpd</goal>
 </goals>
 <phase>site</phase>
 <configuration>
 <!-- Specific configuration for the aggregate report -->
 ...
 </configuration>
 </execution>
 ...
 </executions>
 </plugin>
 ...
 </plugins>
 </build>
 ...
</project>

<project>
 ...
 <reporting>
 <plugins>
 <plugin>
 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
 <artifactId>maven-pmd-plugin</artifactId>
 <version>3.28.0</version>
 <configuration>
 <!-- Default configuration for all reports -->
 ...
 </configuration>
 <reportSets>
 <reportSet>
 <id>non-aggregate</id>
 <configuration>
 <!-- Specific configuration for the non aggregate report -->
 ...
 </configuration>
 <reports>
 <report>pmd</report>
 <report>cpd</report>
 </reports>
 </reportSet>
 <reportSet>
 <id>aggregate</id>
 <configuration>
 <!-- Specific configuration for the aggregate report -->
 ...
 </configuration>
 <reports>
 <report>aggregate-pmd</report>
 <report>aggregate-cpd</report>
 </reports>
 </reportSet>
 ...
 </reportSets>
 </plugin>
 ...
 </plugins>
 </reporting>
 ...
</project>

Generate aggregate PMD without duplicate execution of phase test-compile

• The standard goal aggregate-pmd invokes separate lifecyle test-compile.
• In a CI environment you now might execute something like mvn clean deploy site site-deploy.
• During site build the standard reports will trigger test-compile again, depending on your build this may take some time, because stuff like enforcer or generating stubs from a WDSL will be invoked again, which may lead to longer build times.
• As of version 3.15.0 a new report is defined, aggregate-pmd-no-fork which will not trigger above phases a second time.
• Note: This is only a problem for PMD report. CPD does not invoke a separate lifecycle.
• Configure this in your reporting section as follows:

  <project>
   ...
   <reporting>
   <excludeDefaults>true</excludeDefaults>
   <plugins>
   <plugin>
   <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
   <artifactId>maven-pmd-plugin</artifactId>
   <version>3.28.0</version>
   <reportSets>
   <reportSet>
   <reports>
   <report>aggregate-pmd-no-fork</report>
   <report>aggregate-cpd</report>
   </reports>
   </reportSet>
   </reportSets>
   </plugin>
   </plugins>
   </reporting>
   ...
  </project>