Maven problem porting build from linux to windows

Question

I am porting a project build from linux to windows. I am running into problems with the following piece of my pom.xml

I replaced

  <execution>
    <id>rm -rf node_modules/</id>
    <goals>
      <goal>exec</goal>
    </goals>
    <phase>initialize</phase>
    <configuration>
      <executable>rm</executable>
      <arguments>
        <argument>-fr</argument>
        <argument>node_modules/</argument>
      </arguments>
    </configuration>
  </execution>

With

<execution>
    <id>rm -rf node_modules/</id>
    <goals>
        <goal>exec</goal>
    </goals>
    <phase>initialize</phase>
    <configuration>
        <executable>rmdir</executable>
        <arguments>
            <argument>.\node_modules\</argument>
            <argument>/S</argument>
            <argument>/Q</argument>
        </arguments>
    </configuration>
</execution>

The first works under linux but fails under windows, so I figured use the appropriate cmd.exe commands. This however is failing with a file not found the directory exists so my assumption is that it is the command that is failing. I also tried the powershell command Remove-Item with appropriate arguments this also failed, I have also tried changing the argument order also a no go.

Answer 1

rm is a Linux executable, but rmdir is not a Windows executable: it is a command. The correct executable is CMD with /c rmdir as the first two arguments. However the maven-antrun-plugin suggested above and the maven-clean-plugin are better choices because the result will work both with Linux and Windows.