[DEBUG] (f) configLocation = sun_checks.xml
[DEBUG] (f) consoleOutput = false
[DEBUG] (f) failOnViolation = true
[DEBUG] (f) failsOnError = false
my pom setting the below block inside <build> and i do have google_checks.xml at root level (same with pom file)
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>validate</phase>
<goals>
<goal>check</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<skip>false</skip>
<failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
<consoleOutput>true</consoleOutput>
<includeTestSourceDirectory>true</includeTestSourceDirectory>
<configLocation>google_checks.xml</configLocation>
<sourceDirectories>
<directory>${project.build.sourceDirectory}</directory>
</sourceDirectories>
<testSourceDirectories>
<directory>${project.build.testSourceDirectory}</directory>
</testSourceDirectories>
<violationSeverity>error</violationSeverity>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.puppycrawl.tools</groupId>
<artifactId>checkstyle</artifactId>
<version>8.0</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</plugin>