Bernhard Hagmann's Blog

Problem

You use Checkstyle with custom rules in a Maven build.

While the check via mvn install is performed with the custom ruleset, a check via mvn checkstyle:check or checkstyle:checkstyle is performed with the standard (Sun + Maven) ruleset.

With some tinkering you can get it to check no rules, but not to use the custom ruleset.

Solution

Your configuration probably looks something like this (from the official Maven Checkstyle usage[1]):

 <plugin>
   <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
   <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
   <version>2.15</version>
   <executions>
     <execution>
       <id>validate</id>
       <phase>validate</phase>
       <configuration>
         <configLocation>checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
         <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
         <consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
         <failsOnError>true</failsOnError>
         <linkXRef>false</linkXRef>
       </configuration>
       <goals>
         <goal>check</goal>
       </goals>
     </execution>
   </executions>
 </plugin>

Move the <configuration> up, so it becomes a child of <plugin>, like this:

<plugin>
   <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
   <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
   <version>2.15</version>
   <configuration>
      <configLocation>checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
      <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
      <consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
      <failsOnError>true</failsOnError>
      <linkXRef>false</linkXRef>
   </configuration>
   <executions>
      <execution>
         <id>validate</id>
         <phase>validate</phase>
         <goals>
            <goal>check</goal>
         </goals>
      </execution>
   </executions>
</plugin>

Sources

[1] https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-checkstyle-plugin/usage.html