The {} file does not exist. The --resume / -r feature will n

Error message

The {} file does not exist. The --resume / -r feature will not work.

What it means

With mvn -r / --resume, Maven re-runs only the projects that failed plus their downstream modules, reading that list from resume.properties in the root (first) module's target/. This warning says the file is absent, so the resume feature degenerates to a full build of all tasks.

Source

Thrown at impl/maven-core/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/execution/DefaultBuildResumptionDataRepository.java:96

                loadResumptionFile(Paths.get(rootProject.getBuild().getDirectory()));
        applyResumptionProperties(request, properties);
    }

    @Override
    public void removeResumptionData(MavenProject rootProject) {
        Path resumeProperties = Paths.get(rootProject.getBuild().getDirectory(), RESUME_PROPERTIES_FILENAME);
        try {
            Files.deleteIfExists(resumeProperties);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            LOGGER.warn("Could not delete {} file. ", RESUME_PROPERTIES_FILENAME, e);
        }
    }

    private Properties loadResumptionFile(Path rootBuildDirectory) {
        Properties properties = new Properties();
        Path path = rootBuildDirectory.resolve(RESUME_PROPERTIES_FILENAME);
        if (!Files.exists(path)) {
            LOGGER.warn("The {} file does not exist. The --resume / -r feature will not work.", path);
            return properties;
        }

        try (Reader reader = Files.newBufferedReader(path)) {
            properties.load(reader);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            LOGGER.warn("Unable to read {}. The --resume / -r feature will not work.", path);
        }

        return properties;
    }

    // This method is made package-private for testing purposes
    void applyResumptionProperties(MavenExecutionRequest request, Properties properties) {
        String str1 = request.getResumeFrom();
        if (properties.containsKey(REMAINING_PROJECTS) && !(str1 != null && !str1.isEmpty())) {
            String propertyValue = properties.getProperty(REMAINING_PROJECTS);
            Stream.of(propertyValue.split(PROPERTY_DELIMITER))

View on GitHub (pinned to e4093d4e12)

Solutions

Run the build once WITHOUT -r and let it fail so that resume.properties is written into the root module's target/, then re-run mvn -r
Verify the root module's target/ actually contains resume.properties (ls <root>/target/resume.properties)
If the previous build succeeded there is nothing to resume - run without -r
Make sure no cleanup (mvn clean between attempts, CI workspace wiping) removes target/ after a failed build

Example fix

# before (nothing persisted yet)
mvn -r clean install   # warns: file does not exist, builds everything
# after
mvn clean install       # fails, writes <root>/target/resume.properties
mvn -r clean install    # resumes remaining projects only

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// check resumption state exists before requesting a resume
Path resume = Paths.get(rootProject.getBuild().getDirectory(), "resume.properties");
if (request.isResume() && !Files.exists(resume)) {
    request.setResume(false); // avoid the warning: fall back to full build explicitly
}

Prevention

Only pass -r after a build has actually failed and written target/resume.properties
Do not run mvn clean between the failed attempt and the -r retry
Remember the file lives in the ROOT module's target/, not the CWD's

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking mvn -r before any build has failed and persisted data; the previous build succeeded (removeResumptionData deleted the file); the previous build failed so early that persistResumptionData never ran; running -r in a way that resolves a different root project (different execution root).

Common situations: First-ever build of a project; a CI job wiping target/ between attempts; invoking --resume with --resume-from (which does not read the file); Maven 3, where the flag does not exist.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/maven@e4093d4e12 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fa1e1c2136c2baaa. Report an issue: GitHub.