How to Add Jars to Maven 2 Build Classpath Without Installing Them

How to add local jar files to a Maven project?

Install the JAR into your local Maven repository (typically .m2 in your home folder) as follows:

mvn install:install-file \
   -Dfile=<path-to-file> \
   -DgroupId=<group-id> \
   -DartifactId=<artifact-id> \
   -Dversion=<version> \
   -Dpackaging=<packaging> \
   -DgeneratePom=true

Where each refers to:

<path-to-file>: the path to the file to load e.g → c:\kaptcha-2.3.jar

<group-id>: the group that the file should be registered under e.g → com.google.code

<artifact-id>: the artifact name for the file e.g → kaptcha

<version>: the version of the file e.g → 2.3

<packaging>: the packaging of the file e.g. → jar

Reference

• Maven FAQ: I have a jar that I want to put into my local repository. How can I copy it in?
• Maven Install Plugin Usage: The install:install-file goal

Maven: add a folder or jar file into current classpath

This might have been asked before. See Can I add jars to maven 2 build classpath without installing them?

In a nutshell: include your jar as dependency with system scope. This requires specifying the absolute path to the jar.

See also http://maven.apache.org/guides/introduction/introduction-to-dependency-mechanism.html

Maven : How to package external jars(folder) in Maven project

My solution : Maven pluggin addjar let us add all jar at a place(projectdirectory/lib in this case).

this enables you to add these jar's in the final package(jar in my case) when you maven build, but to run locally you have to add those jar files directly in the classpath.

            <plugin>
                      <groupId>com.googlecode.addjars-maven-plugin</groupId>
                      <artifactId>addjars-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                      <version>1.0.5</version>
                      <executions>
                             <execution>
                                   <goals>
                                          <goal>add-jars</goal>
                                   </goals>
                                   <configuration>
                                          <resources>
                                                <resource>
                                                       <directory>${basedir}/lib</directory>
                                                </resource>
                                          </resources>
                                   </configuration>
                             </execution>
                      </executions>
            </plugin>

Now create a shade jar using mvn clean install shade:shade

Can I add LOCAL source jars to maven 2 build without installing them so they can be referenced in eclipse?

If you're using the m2e Eclipse plugin, there's an option to download sources for all dependencies:

• Right-click the project
• Maven > Download Sources

If you're not using m2e, you can download the sources from command line using

mvn dependency:sources

To get them into Eclipse, you can use

mvn eclipse:eclipse -DdownloadSources=true

The easiest way to handle this is through m2e though. I strongly recommend to install it, as it will simplify all other Maven handling from within Eclipse.

If the sources are not available in a public repository, you can either

• Upload the sources to your local Maven repository, if you're using something like Nexus, Archiva or Artifactory.
• Install them locally using the Maven Install plugin: http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-install-plugin/examples/installing-secondary-artifacts.html The disadvantage is that it will only be visible to yourself in this case.

Out of the two, the first one (local Maven repository/proxy) is recommended.

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