Why mvn compile lifecycle phase is not compiling only changed java files?

I have a Java project which is using JDK 1.8 and Maven 3.9 build tool.

Here is the 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/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.mycompany</groupId>
    <artifactId>testprojectcodestyle</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <properties>
        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
        <maven.compiler.source>8</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>8</maven.compiler.target>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.13.2</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>


    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.0.0</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <compilerVersion>${java.version}</compilerVersion>
                    <source>${java.version}</source>
                    <target>${java.version}</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Now, when I executed mvn compile phase on the project. I see that it compiled 5 files. That's okay.

Now I changed only one file and executed the mvn compile phase again. It compiled the 5 files again.

Why this happened? Is it possible to tell maven to compile only changed files?

You need to use <useIncrementalCompilation> feature from maven-compiler-plugin.

Read the Maven docs for useIncrementalCompilation.

Just add the below line in the maven-compiler-plugin to turn off the incremental compilation.

<useIncrementalCompilation>false</useIncrementalCompilation>

This will make sure that changed files are only picked up for compilation.

Updated 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/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.mycompany</groupId>
    <artifactId>testprojectcodestyle</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <properties>
        <java.version>1.8</java.version>
        <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.13.2</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.2.2</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.11.0</version>
                <configuration>
                    <compilerVersion>${java.version}</compilerVersion>
                    <source>${java.version}</source>
                    <target>${java.version}</target>
                    <useIncrementalCompilation>false</useIncrementalCompilation>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Note: Try to use the latest version for maven plugins. Although <useIncrementalCompilation> feature works from maven-compiler-plugin version 3.1 onwards.