Major Maven goals

Maven is a project management tool.
It has many goals which can build and deploy your projects.
This article introduces about how to use goals with sample commnds.

• Generate project
• Goals
  • mvn compile
  • mvn test-compile
  • mvn test
  • mvn package
  • mvn clean
  • mvn install
  • mvn site
  • mvn idea:idea
  • mvn eclipse:eclipse
• Plugins
  • mvn jar:jar
  • mvn war:war
• Tips

Generate project

First, you must generate test project.

• mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.maven.archetypes -DgroupId=com.mycompany.app -DartifactId=my-app

This command with those parameters will be able to generate a project.
The archetypeGroupId parameter shuld be specifiled a package prepared by maven.
You can also create original archetypeGroupId by myself.

The groupId shuld be specified a name of package you like.
The artifactId shuld be specified a name of project you like.

Executing this command, you have to input any parameter to generate project.

Choose a number or apply filter (format: [groupId:]artifactId, case sensitive contains): 312:
  enter
Choose org.apache.maven.archetypes:maven-archetype-quickstart version:
  enter（1.1）
Define value for property 'version':  1.0-SNAPSHOT: :
  enter
Confirm properties configuration:
  groupId: com.mycompany.app
  artifactId: my-app
  version: 1.0-SNAPSHOT
  package: com.mycompany.app

Goals

The mvn command has various subcommands called "goal".
You can create a jar or deploy a war with various ways of specifying goals.
Basically, if you know types and actions of goals, you will be able to use maven.

Also, maven has the concept of a plugin.
You can extend maven’s behavior by developing a plugin.

I will introduce about the major goals and it’s usage below.
I can’t introduce maven everything in this article.
So a person who is interested in other goals, please see the following URL further.
http://maven.apache.org/guides/introduction/introduction-to-the-lifecycle.html

Please execute the mvn command in the directory where pom.xml is located.

mvn compile

It can create .class files which are compiled by java under the target/classes path.

mvn test-compile

It can create .class files of test cases which are compiled by java under the target/test-classes path.

mvn test

It can create .class files and test .class files which are compiled by java under the target/classes and target/test-classes path.
Then run the test based on test .class files and save the result in target/surefire-reports.

Maven’s default test framework is JUnit.
It’s definition is described in the pom.xml.

mvn package

It can create .class files and test .class files which are compiled by java under the target/classes and target/test-classes path.
Then run the test based on test .class files and save results in the target/surefire-reports path.
It can generate a jar file under the target/ path.
In other words, it executes compile, test-compile, test and jar:jar at once.

You can see the test results statistically using the Surefire plugin.
http://maven.apache.org/surefire/maven-surefire-report-plugin/

mvn clean

It will delete the target directory.
It must be executed before compile, test-compile, test or package etc.

mvn install

It can deploy the created artifact (jar file and pom.xml) to the local maven repository.
For example: /root/.m2/repository/com/mycompany/app/my-app/1.0-SNAPSHOT/
It shuld be executed when other projects need to refer to artifacts.

mvn site

Based on pom.xml, project information can be output to HTML.
You can check the list of jars and so on used by the project.

mvn idea:idea

It converts a project into a folder structure that can operate on IntelliJ.
You execute this comand if you want to develop on IntelliJ with existing project.
It will generate .iml, .ipr, .iws files.

mvn eclipse:eclipse

It converts a project into a folder structure that can operate on Eclipse.
You execute this comand if you want to develop on Eclipse with existing project.
It will generate .classpath, .project files.

Plugins

I will explain the famous plugin for maven.
Several plugins can be used even in the default state.

mvn jar:jar

It can generate a jar file under the target/ path.
http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-jar-plugin/

mvn war:war

It can generate a war file under the target/ path.
Execute when you want to create web application.
http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-war-plugin/

This command should fail if you run it on this test project.
Because this test project is not a project for web applications.

If you want to create a project for Web application, you can create it using the following command.
* mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeGroupId=maven-archetype-webapp -DgroupId=com.mycompany.web.app -DartifactId=my-web-app

For other type of archetypeGroupId to create the project please check the following URL.
http://maven.apache.org/guides/introduction/introduction-to-archetypes.html

Tips

To use the mvn command you basically need access to the Internet.
If you run it under the proxy please add the proxy setting in pom.xml.

There is also a tutorial on maven.
If you do not know anything about maven, you try this one (I recommend it).
http://maven.apache.org/guides/getting-started/