Re: Reusable, in-line assemblies/user-level descriptorrefs

[Julien Simon]

I don't really understand why this is a problem...

Maybe you could try to use the <skipAssembly> tag in your plugin
configuration at the parent level like this;

<plugin>
         <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
         ...
         <configuration>
            <skipAssembly> ${assembly.skip}</skipAssembly>
          ....
         </configuration>
         ...
</plugin>

and set a property in your parent POM, for example:
<project>
   ...
  <properties>
    <assembly.skip>true</assembly.skip>
  </properties>
   ...
<project>

and set the same property in your children poms with a "false" value.

I have no idea if this is going to work, try it out!!