 <p>I can't reproduce the issue. I used the following test class:</p> <pre><code>package com.stackoverflow.q3421918; public class Hello { public static void main( String[] args ) { System.out.println( args[0] + " " + args[1] ); } } </code></pre> <p>And the following pom.xml:</p> <pre><code>&lt;project&gt; &lt;modelVersion&gt;4.0.0&lt;/modelVersion&gt; &lt;groupId&gt;com.stackoverflow.q3421918&lt;/groupId&gt; &lt;artifactId&gt;Q3421918&lt;/artifactId&gt; &lt;version&gt;1.0-SNAPSHOT&lt;/version&gt; &lt;!-- this was a test for a workaround --&gt; &lt;properties&gt; &lt;myprop&gt;${langdir}&lt;/myprop&gt; &lt;/properties&gt; &lt;dependencies&gt; &lt;dependency&gt; &lt;groupId&gt;junit&lt;/groupId&gt; &lt;artifactId&gt;junit&lt;/artifactId&gt; &lt;version&gt;3.8.1&lt;/version&gt; &lt;scope&gt;test&lt;/scope&gt; &lt;/dependency&gt; &lt;/dependencies&gt; &lt;build&gt; &lt;plugins&gt; &lt;plugin&gt; &lt;groupId&gt;org.codehaus.mojo&lt;/groupId&gt; &lt;artifactId&gt;exec-maven-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt; &lt;version&gt;1.2&lt;/version&gt; &lt;executions&gt; &lt;execution&gt; &lt;phase&gt;test&lt;/phase&gt; &lt;goals&gt; &lt;goal&gt;java&lt;/goal&gt; &lt;/goals&gt; &lt;/execution&gt; &lt;/executions&gt; &lt;configuration&gt; &lt;mainClass&gt;com.stackoverflow.q3421918.Hello&lt;/mainClass&gt; &lt;arguments&gt; &lt;argument&gt;${myprop}&lt;/argument&gt; &lt;argument&gt;${langdir}&lt;/argument&gt; &lt;/arguments&gt; &lt;/configuration&gt; &lt;/plugin&gt; &lt;/plugins&gt; &lt;/build&gt; &lt;/project&gt; </code></pre> <p>And here is the output I get:</p> <pre> $ mvn clean package -Dlangdir=C:/somedir [INFO] Scanning for projects... [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Building Q3421918 [INFO] task-segment: [clean, package] [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ... [INFO] Preparing exec:java [WARNING] Removing: java from forked lifecycle, to prevent recursive invocation. [INFO] No goals needed for project - skipping [INFO] [exec:java {execution: default}] Hello c:/somedir c:/somedir [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ... </pre> <p>Tested with Maven 2.2.1.</p>