build.jelly, line 246 (as of 27/04/2004 ) contains the following code block: <j:choose trim="true"> <j:when test="${!pom.build.unitTest.resources.includes.isEmpty()}"> <j:set var="maven.has.test.resource.patterns" value="true"/> </j:when> <j:when test="${!pom.build.unitTest.resources.excludes.isEmpty()}"> <j:set var="maven.has.test.resource.patterns" value="true"/> </j:when> </j:choose> <j:if test="${maven.has.test.resource.patterns}"> <copy todir="$${testclassesdir}"> <fileset dir="${pom.build.unitTestSourceDirectory}"> <j:forEach var="res" items="${pom.build.unitTest.resources.includes}"> <include name="${res}"/> </j:forEach> <j:forEach var="res" items="${pom.build.unitTest.resources.excludes}"> <exclude name="${res}"/> </j:forEach> </fileset> </copy> </j:if> According to the schema definition, there can not be a build.unitTest.resources.includes element. Actually, there is an intermediate <resource> level. The above mentioned block causes jelly exceptions in (at least) rc2 and the current snapshots. A symptom of this bug is that "maven dist" will fail to build a source distribution". A proper solution would be to add a nested iteration over all <resources>/<resouce> elements. We have choosen to <j:if>def the block pasted above, which gives as a working "maven dist" too.