Using a Custom Checkstyle Checker Configuration

A custom Checker configuration xml file can be defined and then referenced via a URL, File, or build classpath resource reference.

To reference a custom Checkstyle Checker configuration, use the configLocation parameter.

<project>
 ...
 <reporting>
 <plugins>
 <plugin>
 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
 <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
 <version>3.6.0</version>
 <configuration>
 <configLocation>checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
 </configuration>
 </plugin>
 </plugins>
 </reporting>
 ...
</project>

This example causes the Checkstyle Plugin to check for a File named checkstyle.xml or a resource named checkstyle.xml within the compile scope of the dependencies or build extensions classpath.

There are 2 predefined Checkstyle configuration definitions that ship with the Checkstyle Plugin, the Sun Microsystems Definition is selected by default.

• sun_checks.xml - Sun Microsystems Definition (default).
• google_checks.xml - Google Definition.