Overall preGoal in parent maven.xml?

[Sean Timm <st...@proclarity.com>]

The current .properties file scheme doesn't work for project inheritance
(since they don't get inherited, naturallly), so I was hoping to be able
to set various properties via some other mechanism.  I figured out that
maven.xml *does* get inherited, so I was able to set some basic
properties in various preGoal tags.  I tried to declare the properties
outside of any preGoal to attempt to globally set some, but it didn't
appear to work.  I've been able to successfully do it in various
specific preGoals, but I'd rather not have to update it every time a new
goal comes along...

Is there a goal that I could hook into that *always* occurs before
*everything* else?  Or is there some other way to accomplish what I'm
trying to do?

Thanks!

-- Sean T.