Question: I see that this has already been asked over here: [How to execute maven plugin from command line?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12930656/how-to-execute-maven-plugin-from-command-line)
but I don't really understand the answer. It looks like the syntax is of the form: 

```
mvn foo:bar

```

But I'm not really sure what foo and bar are supposed to be. 

Specifically I have configured the maven-resource-plugin like this: 

```
<plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.5</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>copy-resources</id>
            <phase>prepare-package</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>copy-resources</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <!--configuration here-->
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

```

I've tried several permutations of `mvn artifactId|id|phase|goal:artifactidId|id|phase|goal` but none of them are working. I figured i'd stop trying to brute-force it and just ask the internet. Also, is this documented anywhere?

Answer: 
There are 3 patterns:

```
groupId:artifactId:version:goal
groupId:artifactId:goal
prefix:goal

```

If you run this from a location with a pom.xml and you haven't specified the version, Maven will search for a matching plugin in the build-section.
The prefix can often (not always) be recognized as part of the artifactId, e.g. `maven-help-plugin` has the prefix `help`. The plugin documentation should give you the exact prefix.
You would call this plugin goal as follows:

```
mvn resources:copy-resources

```

where `copy-resources` is the plugin goal that you configured in the POM, and `resources` is *prefix* of the `maven-resources-plugin` (see [this link](https://maven.apache.org/guides/introduction/introduction-to-plugin-prefix-mapping.html) for plugin prefix resolution).