The --ignore option in the .poms files means the module won't be built.
maven.ignoreRules specifies the dependencies that are ignored. It's two
different things.
If you have a multi module project with a test module that you don't
want or can't build, and this module is a dependency of other modules,
then you have to --ignore it *and* add it's coordinates in
maven.ignoreRules.
I think I'm still missing something here. For example, I add dependencies that I want to ignore to d/maven.ignoreRules. The package builds fine. But say there's a dummy root POM and I don't want to have a "dummy-build-only" directory added to the final package. So I add a --ignore for that POM (also tried --ignore-pom) but then I get complaints that required dependencies are not present. Specifically, the dependencies for the ignored POM that I have listed in the ignoreRules. It almost seems that if I --ignore a POM then the ignore-Rules for that POM are ignored as well, but the package build still tries to find those dependencies. Does that make sense?
-Olek