title: Maven skip tests
body: <p>I am using Maven 2.2.1 and to build my project I used this command</p>
  
  <pre><code>mvn clean install -Dmaven.test.skip=true
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, the build failed saying it couldn't find one of the artifact. However, when I used:</p>
  
  <pre><code>mvn clean install -DskipTests
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>everything worked fine. </p>
  
  <p>So far I have been thinking that these 2 commands are equivalent. However, <a href="http://maven.apache.org/surefire/maven-surefire-plugin/examples/skipping-test.html">this link</a> seems to suggest that <code>-Dmaven.test.skip=true</code> also skips compiling the test cases.</p>
  
  <p>However, that still didn't explain to me why one command is working and another is not. Will be thankful if anyone please explain this to me.</p>