Profile compiler plugin configuration not inherited

• Complexity:

  Intermediate

Compiler plugin configuration in parent pom profile is ignored by child pom.

Parent pom includes a profile which sets the compiler plugin's source and target settings to 1.5:
<project>
...
<profiles>
<profile>
<id>test</id>
<activation>
<property>
<name>test</name>
<value>true</value>
</property>
</activation>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<inherited>true</inherited>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<target>1.5</target>
<source>1.5</source>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</profile>
</profiles>
</project>

When running the test-compile phase on a child pom, the profile is ignored. Maven complains about annotations not being allowed with -source=1.3.
This occurs when the profile is activated eitherwith the -Ptest or with the -Dtest=true CLI parameters.

The above configuration works perfectly well when the <profiles> element is copied/pasted to the child pom.