I think I actually agree with Colin here. ~/build.properties as a default;
${basedir}/build.properties as an override.
I actually use ~/build.properties to set things that don't happen to be set
later, so it won't impact, but one way to have it go forward is to leave
~/build.properties as is, and have a ~/defaults.properties that does the
other behaviour.Related change: http://jira.codehaus.org/secure/ViewIssue.jspa?key=MAVEN-605 At the moment, I also use ~/build.properties to get around the fact that Maven won't read inherited project.properties files: ~/build.properties: tr3.appserver.name=tomcat tr3.appserver.version=3.2.x tr3.appserver.home=/www/tomcat-3.2 ${basedir}/project.properties (for some subproject): maven.appserver.name=${tr3.appserver.name} ... Cheers, Brett
