How does maven default life cycle get executed on maven project

Question

I have this very simple question in the context of maven. In the maven world, it says everything about my project is defined in the project object model.

So, when I put <packaging> element inside my project object model to be war etc, then maven will apply appropriate goals to default life cycle of maven.But to make it work, I have to define the project maven-war-plugin inside the build section of my project object model. But when I inspect my pom and super pom, it does not have maven-war-plugin included. I am using maven 3.0.5 and super pom is located inside

\maven-model-builder-3.0.5\org\apache\maven\model

following is the content of the super pom. So I'am confused here from where does it take this plugin if it is not described in the project object model. definition of pom says that everything about my project is defined inside the project object model. Could anybody help me here to understand the concept clearly. Thanks in advance for any help

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<!-- START SNIPPET: superpom -->
<project>
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <repositories>
    <repository>
      <id>central</id>
      <name>Central Repository</name>
      <url>http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2</url>
      <layout>default</layout>
      <snapshots>
        <enabled>false</enabled>
      </snapshots>
    </repository>
  </repositories>

  <pluginRepositories>
    <pluginRepository>
      <id>central</id>
      <name>Central Repository</name>
      <url>http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2</url>
      <layout>default</layout>
      <snapshots>
        <enabled>false</enabled>
      </snapshots>
      <releases>
        <updatePolicy>never</updatePolicy>
      </releases>
    </pluginRepository>
  </pluginRepositories>

  <build>
    <directory>${project.basedir}/target</directory>
    <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/classes</outputDirectory>
    <finalName>${project.artifactId}-${project.version}</finalName>
    <testOutputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/test-classes</testOutputDirectory>
    <sourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/main/java</sourceDirectory>
    <scriptSourceDirectory>src/main/scripts</scriptSourceDirectory>
    <testSourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/test/java</testSourceDirectory>
    <resources>
      <resource>
        <directory>${project.basedir}/src/main/resources</directory>
      </resource>
    </resources>
    <testResources>
      <testResource>
        <directory>${project.basedir}/src/test/resources</directory>
      </testResource>
    </testResources>
    <pluginManagement>
      <!-- NOTE: These plugins will be removed from future versions of the super POM -->
      <!-- They are kept for the moment as they are very unlikely to conflict with lifecycle mappings (MNG-4453) -->
      <plugins>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>1.3</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.2-beta-5</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.1</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.0</version>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
    </pluginManagement>
  </build>

  <reporting>
    <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/site</outputDirectory>
  </reporting>

  <profiles>
    <!-- NOTE: The release profile will be removed from future versions of the super POM -->
    <profile>
      <id>release-profile</id>

      <activation>
        <property>
          <name>performRelease</name>
          <value>true</value>
        </property>
      </activation>

      <build>
        <plugins>
          <plugin>
            <inherited>true</inherited>
            <artifactId>maven-source-plugin</artifactId>
            <executions>
              <execution>
                <id>attach-sources</id>
                <goals>
                  <goal>jar</goal>
                </goals>
              </execution>
            </executions>
          </plugin>
          <plugin>
            <inherited>true</inherited>
            <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
            <executions>
              <execution>
                <id>attach-javadocs</id>
                <goals>
                  <goal>jar</goal>
                </goals>
              </execution>
            </executions>
          </plugin>
          <plugin>
            <inherited>true</inherited>
            <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
              <updateReleaseInfo>true</updateReleaseInfo>
            </configuration>
          </plugin>
        </plugins>
      </build>
    </profile>
  </profiles>

</project>
<!-- END SNIPPET: superpom -->

Answer 1

Take a look at the default-bindings.xml, particularly the definition for <role-hint>war</role-hint>:

<component>
  <role>org.apache.maven.lifecycle.mapping.LifecycleMapping</role>
  <role-hint>war</role-hint>
  <implementation>org.apache.maven.lifecycle.mapping.DefaultLifecycleMapping</implementation>
  <configuration>
  ...
          <package>
            org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-war-plugin:2.2:war
          </package>

This defines what goal will be run for this packaging type's package phase by reference to the war-specific plugin.

This is covered by the Introduction to the Build Lifecycle in Built-in Lifecycle Bindings.