Avoid need for colon in property names

[seanf]

I would like to override a plugin version when building on my local machine. This works on the command line:

 mvn compile -DpluginVersion:org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-eclipse-compiler=2.9.0-01-SNAPSHOT

but this is not legal XML for ~/.m2/settings.xml because of the need for colons in the element name:

  <properties>
    <pluginVersion:org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-eclipse-compiler>2.9.0-01-SNAPSHOT</pluginVersion:org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-eclipse-compiler>
  </properties>

Could you please provide an alternative syntax where the property names are legal in XML?

[seanf]

Correction, this doesn't work on the command line either:

 mvn compile -DpluginVersion:org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-eclipse-compiler=2.9.0-01-SNAPSHOT

but that's because groovy-eclipse-compiler is a dependency of maven-compiler-plugin, not a top-level plugin. See http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GROOVY/Groovy-Eclipse+compiler+plugin+for+Maven and also issue #6.