Configuring the Jalopy Maven Plugin for use within a large multimodule project can be done, but it requires a little setup.
This example will use a project called multi.
[multi]$ ls drwxr-xr-x+ 5 0 Nov 3 15:36 core/ drwxr-xr-x+ 6 0 Nov 16 16:11 gui/ drwxr-xr-x+ 6 0 Nov 29 13:13 jmx/ -rw-r--r-- 1 6153 Nov 29 13:08 pom.xml drwxr-xr-x+ 4 0 Nov 1 15:48 src/
First: setup a sub project to house your build tools.
[multi]$ ls drwxr-xr-x+ 4 0 Nov 29 13:44 build-tools/ drwxr-xr-x+ 5 0 Nov 3 15:36 core/ drwxr-xr-x+ 6 0 Nov 16 16:11 gui/ drwxr-xr-x+ 6 0 Nov 29 13:13 jmx/ -rw-r--r-- 1 6153 Nov 29 13:08 pom.xml drwxr-xr-x+ 4 0 Nov 1 15:48 src/
Next, include the resources you want in the build-tools jar file.
[multi/build-tools]$ find . -type f ./pom.xml ./src/main/resources/multi/jalopy.xml ./src/main/resources/multi/checkstyle.xml ./src/main/resources/multi/pmd.xml ./src/main/resources/multi/LICENSE.txt
TIP: put the resources into a subdirectory that you can ensure will be unique, and not conflict with anyone else.
Now, include the Jalopy configuration in the top level pom.xml.
[multi]$ cat pom.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project
xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.example.multi</groupId>
<artifactId>multi-parent</artifactId>
<version>1.0</version>
<packaging>pom</packaging>
<name>multi Parent</name>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>jalopy-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.0-alpha-1</version>
<configuration>
<convention>multi/jalopy.xml</convention>
<failOnError>false</failOnError>
</configuration>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.example.multi</groupId>
<artifactId>build-tools</artifactId>
<version>1.0</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
<modules>
<module>build-tools</module>
<module>core</module>
<module>jmx</module>
<module>gui</module>
</modules>
</project>
Once you are done with that, ensure that you do not include the jalopy-maven-plugin in your sub modules, as their definitions and configuration will override the top level parent pom's definitions.
Lastly, kick off a reformat of the files:
[multi]$ mvn jalopy:format
Every sub project will use the same Jalopy setup and configuration.