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2. Maven plugins use the files.
The Maven plugins, of course, feed the same core XML files to the tools. By making the buildtools artifact
a dependency of the Maven checkstyle and PMD plugins, the files become available by classpath.
This happens in the parent POM (parent/pom.xml) so that it is set up for all of the projects.

3. Eclipse.
Eclipse is configured via a collection of files that live in the
.settings directories of the workspace and the individual
projects. Each plugin defines the format of its settings. None of them
are documented: it's all reverse engineering.

How to setup it step by step:
Step 1: Check out CXF projects on the root level.
Step 2: Create your Eclipse workspace. By default maven plugin assumes that workspace is located in ../workspace relative to root CXF source directory. To customize it, just add following xml fragment into your maven settings.xml:

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Step 3: Run 'setup.eclipse' maven profile from CXF root source folder.
The 'setup.eclipse' profile uses a combination of ant, xslt, and the 'copy' task to create all of the desired settings files. Some of them are created by copying or modifying templates in etc/eclipse.
Running this profile from root CXF level will update your Eclipse workspace with necessary settings. If workspace was updated, you will be able to see cxf-checkstyle.xml and cxf-checkstyle-corba.xml files in root workspace directory.
Once it happens, it will be enough to import CXF projects generated using eclipse:eclipse or m2e plugin into workspace. Checkstyle and PMD will be automatically activated.