Q:

get tomcat installation path in pom.xml

i want to get the root directory of apache tomcat installed in my system in the pom.xml 
for example my tomcat is installed in c:\apache-tomcat-6.0.32
<execution>
            <id>generate.bat</id>
            <phase>test</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>exec</goal>
            </goals>
        <configuration>
          <executable>here i want to get tomcat director</executable>
          <workingDirectory>here i want to get tomcat directory</workingDirectory>
        </configuration>
        </execution> 

A:

Maven will not be able to guess where is installed your Tomcat. 
But you can use properties to do this. 
For instance you can change define ${tomcat.dir}. 
<execution>
  <id>generate.bat</id>
  <phase>test</phase>
  <goals>
    <goal>exec</goal>
  </goals>
  <configuration>
    <executable>${tomcat.dir}</executable>
    <workingDirectory>${tomcat.dir}</workingDirectory>
  </configuration>
</execution>

And then either you call Maven add to you maven command line -Dtomcat.dir=/your/path/ or you can define the property in the POM. 
<project>
  ...
  <properties>
    <tomcat.dir>/your/tomcat/path</tomcat.dir>
  </properties>
  ...
</project>

