java - Compiling only selected files in Maven

Question

I want to compile only selected files or directories (including subdirectories) within source directory. I was pretty sure I can do this using <includes> of maven-compiler-plugin's configuration, but it seems to not work as I expect since it still compiles all classes into target/classes. What is really strange, Maven output suggest that the setting actually does its work, because with:

  <plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.5.1</version>
    <configuration>
      <includes>
        <include>com/example/dao/bean/*.java</include>
      </includes>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>

I have:

[INFO] Compiling 1 source file to c:Projectsestargetclasses

but with no compiler's configuration I have:

[INFO] Compiling 14 source file to c:Projectsestargetclasses

In both cases however, all 14 classes are compiled into target/classes as I mentioned. Can you explain that or suggest another solution to compile only selected files?

Answer 1

Simple app with 3 classes.

com/company/Obj1.java
com/company/Obj2.java
com/company/inner/Obj3.java  

build in pom.xml

<build>
         <plugins>
            <plugin>
               <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
               <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
               <version>2.0.2</version>
               <configuration>
                  <source>1.6</source>
                  <target>1.6</target>
                  <includes>
                     <include>com/company/inner/*.java</include>
                  </includes>
               </configuration>
            </plugin>
          </plugins>

   </build>  

result: 1 class is compiled.
And any combination of includes is working well
or you mean something else?