I am using below maven compiler plugin to compile my java code:

```
<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
    <inherited>true</inherited>
    <version>2.5.1</version>
    <configuration>
        <source>1.6</source>
        <target>1.6</target>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

```

My java\_home points to Java 7.

My first question, will my classes be compiled with java 6 or java 7?

If with java 6 (because of `<source>1.6</source>` ), how maven will know
the path java 1.6 as java home points to 1.7?

If I need to compile the source code with java 1.8, do I need to set source and target as 1.8?

But then, how maven will know that jdk 1.8 is in the path?

Do i need to change java\_home to point to java 8?