Getting Maven plugin information

Recently I have discovered (what a shame I haven't done it much earlier! :) ) that to get information on Maven plugin goals and parameters it is possible to use help plugin (and not dive into plugin descriptor files packaged into JARs):

mvn help:describe -Dplugin=surefire -Dmojo=compile -Ddetail

Here is a plugin self-explanation that does not need extra comments:

$ mvn help:describe -Dplugin=help -Dmojo=describe -Ddetail
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'help'.
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Maven Default Project
[INFO]    task-segment: [help:describe] (aggregator-style)
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] [help:describe]
[INFO] Mojo: 'help:describe'
help:describe
  Description: Displays a list of the attributes for a Maven Plugin and/or
    goals (aka Mojo - Maven plain Old Java Object).
  Deprecated. No reason given
  Implementation: org.apache.maven.plugins.help.DescribeMojo
  Language: java

  Available parameters:

    artifactId
      The Maven Plugin artifactId to describe.
      Note: Should be used with groupId parameter.
      Deprecated. No reason given

    cmd
      A Maven command like a single goal or a single phase following the Maven
      command line:
      mvn [options] [] []
      Deprecated. No reason given

    detail (Default: false)
      This flag specifies that a detailed (verbose) list of goal (Mojo)
      information should be given.
      Deprecated. No reason given

    goal
      The goal name of a Mojo to describe within the specified Maven Plugin. If
      this parameter is specified, only the corresponding goal (Mojo) will be
      described, rather than the whole Plugin.
      Deprecated. No reason given

    groupId
      The Maven Plugin groupId to describe.
      Note: Should be used with artifactId parameter.
      Deprecated. No reason given

    medium (Default: true)
      This flag specifies that a medium list of goal (Mojo) information should
      be given.
      Deprecated. No reason given

    minimal (Default: false)
      This flag specifies that a minimal list of goal (Mojo) information should
      be given.
      Deprecated. No reason given

    output
      Optional parameter to write the output of this help in a given file,
      instead of writing to the console.
      Note: Could be a relative path.
      Deprecated. No reason given

    plugin
      The Maven Plugin to describe. This must be specified in one of three
      ways:

      1.  plugin-prefix, i.e. 'help'
      2.  groupId:artifactId, i.e. 'org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-help-plugin'
      3.  groupId:artifactId:version, i.e.
        'org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-help-plugin:2.0'
      Deprecated. No reason given

    version
      The Maven Plugin version to describe.
      Note: Should be used with groupId/artifactId parameters.
      Deprecated. No reason given