Support Maven version range activation for profiles

[hazendaz]

New feature, improvement proposal

Currently, Maven allows profile activation based on the JDK version using the <jdk> element, which supports version ranges:

<activation>
    <jdk>[17,)</jdk>
</activation>

This works reliably for activating profiles for any compatible JDK, including future minor versions.

However, there is no equivalent mechanism for Maven versions.

The current workaround using

<activation>
  <property>
    <name>maven.version</name>
    <value>…</value>
  </property>
</activation>

only supports exact string matches.

For example:

<activation>
    <property>
        <name>maven.version</name>
        <value>4.0.0-rc-5</value>
    </property>
</activation>

This approach is fragile and unmaintainable:

Each new Maven 4 release requires adding a new profile or updating the existing one.

Automatic activation for a range of Maven 4 versions is not possible.

It complicates plugin property overrides and build automation.

Proposed improvement:
Introduce a new activation element that behaves like and supports version ranges. Example usage:

<profile>
    <id>maven4</id>
    <activation>
        <maven>[4,)</maven>
    </activation>
    <properties>
        <!-- overrides for Maven 4 -->
        <clean.plugin>4.0.0-beta-2</clean.plugin>
        <compiler.plugin>4.0.0-beta-4</compiler.plugin>
        <deploy.plugin>4.0.0-beta-2</deploy.plugin>
        <install.plugin>4.0.0-beta-2</install.plugin>
    </properties>
</profile>

Benefits:

1. Automatically activates profiles for any future Maven 4.x releases.
2. Eliminates the need for multiple exact-match profiles.
3. Simplifies plugin version overrides for Maven 4.
4. Keeps builds future-proof and reduces maintenance overhead.

This would bring feature parity between JDK and Maven version activation and is fully backward-compatible for Maven 3 and existing builds.

[hazendaz]

To be effective this would need to be in maven 3 as well.

[achyuth8055]

hai @hazendaz I can take this on and implement a element aligned with the existing activation, reusing Maven’s version range handling and keeping the change compatible with Maven 3,
Please let me know if you see any issues with this approach.

[hazendaz]

Hi @achyuth8055, sounds good to me, bigger thing is if Maven team accepts it. I think its a reasonable request to have this and no one has really commented yet. I see threads on user/dev groups again talking release of 4.0 and now another 3.9, so having this before either of those things occur would be wonderful.

[achyuth8055]

Hi @hazendaz , great. I will start working on this and prepare a draft PR for review. Please let me know if you'd prefer any additional design discussion before I begin.