title: Spring Tool Suite / Maven deletes my .properties files
body: <p>I'm a relative newbie and i'm trying to build an app that accepts an external configuration file. I'm writing it with spring Tool suite and compiling it with Maven.</p>
  
  <p>I have a src/main/java folder that contains the package with all my classes and a target folder that the .jar files get generated into.</p>
  
  <p>I'm trying to use their guide on external configuration: <a href="https://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/docs/current/reference/html/boot-features-external-config.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/docs/current/reference/html/boot-features-external-config.html</a></p>
  
  <p>I will create a /config file in ./target and right-click > new > file which i'll name "application.properties." Once I try to interact with it, i'm warned right away that this is a derived file.</p>
  
  <p>in application.properties, I put:</p>
  
  <pre><code>spring.application.name = "hello"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>in a static class elsewhere in the file structure, I put:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@Value("${name}")
  public static String name;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>when I package and run the .jar, not only does it fail to retrieve the name property, but the .properties file and sometimes the /config folder get deleted!</p>
  
  <p>What did I break to make Maven delete my .properties files?</p>