Place all libraries and files for a project in one folder

Question

I use maven in my java build process. The following is a snippet of code that creates an single jar with all dependencies. In order to reduce the data transfer on small changes to the build I'd like to place all project files (including dependencies) in the folder target/build . I plan to rsync the folder with the remote machine running the app and run the app with:

java -cp target/build/* <classname>

How do I modify this snippet to achieve this? I've read the documentation here but don't know how to piece the fix together:

• http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/
• http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly.html

• http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/descriptor-refs.html

    <plugin> <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId> <version>2.3</version> <configuration> <descriptorRefs> <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef> </descriptorRefs> </configuration> <executions> <execution> <id>make-assembly</id> <phase>package</phase> <goals> <goal>single</goal> </goals> </execution> </executions> </plugin> 

Answer 1

Are you asking how to get maven to copy your dependencies to the target folder when you build?

I think you want the maven dependency plugin. It copies the dependencies of your project to an output folder you specify.

        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>install</id>
                    <phase>install</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <outputDirectory>${targetDirectory}</outputDirectory>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>

It sounds like you may also need to maven jar plugin to tell it where to package your jar to.

        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.1</version>
            <configuration>
                <outputDirectory>${dir}</outputDirectory>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

Answer 2

Use the maven dependency plugin

It has the gole: copy-dependencies . This should do what you want.

Example (take from the documentation )

  <project>
    [...]
    <build>
      <plugins>
        <plugin>
          <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
          <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.5.1</version>
          <executions>
            <execution>
              <id>copy-dependencies</id>
              <phase>package</phase>
              <goals>
                <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
              </goals>
              <configuration>
                <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/alternateLocation</outputDirectory>
                <overWriteReleases>false</overWriteReleases>
                <overWriteSnapshots>false</overWriteSnapshots>
                <overWriteIfNewer>true</overWriteIfNewer>
              </configuration>
            </execution>
          </executions>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
  </build>
   [...]
</project>