Targets from external ant file can be run using maven-antrun-plugin.
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>test</phase>
<configuration>
<tasks>
<echo message="Hi there."/>
<ant antfile="${basedir}/build.xml" target="test"/>
</tasks>
</configuration>
<goals>
<goal>run</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
Also, you can execute the external command using maven-exec-plugin.
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.1</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>compile</phase>
<goals>
<goal>exec</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
<configuration>
<executable>svn</executable>
<arguments>
<argument>info</argument>
<argument>--xml</argument>
</arguments>
<outputFile>target/classes/svninfo.txt</outputFile>
</configuration>
</plugin>