Apache Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool.
Based on the concept of a project object model (POM), Maven can manage a project’s build, reporting and documentation from a central piece of information.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Simple project setup that follows best practices – get a new project or module started in seconds.
- Consistent usage across all projects – means no ramp up time for new developers coming onto a project.
- Superior dependency management including automatic updating, dependency closures (also known as transitive dependencies).
- Able to easily work with multiple projects at the same time.
- A large and growing repository of libraries and metadata to use out of the box, and arrangements in place with the largest Open Source projects for real-time availability of their latest releases.
- Extensible, with the ability to easily write plugins in Java or scripting languages.
- Instant access to new features with little or no extra configuration.
- Ant tasks for dependency management and deployment outside of Maven.
- Model based builds: Maven is able to build any number of projects into predefined output types such as a JAR, WAR, or distribution based on metadata about the project, without the need to do any scripting in most cases.
- Coherent site of project information: Using the same metadata as for the build process, Maven is able to generate a web site or PDF including any documentation you care to add, and adds to that standard reports about the state of development of the project. Examples of this information can be seen at the bottom of the left-hand navigation of this site under the “Project Information” and “Project Reports” submenus.
- Release management and distribution publication: Without much additional configuration, Maven will integrate with your source control system (such as Subversion or Git) and manage the release of a project based on a certain tag. It can also publish this to a distribution location for use by other projects. Maven is able to publish individual outputs such as a JAR, an archive including other dependencies and documentation, or as a source distribution.
- Dependency management: Maven encourages the use of a central repository of JARs and other dependencies. Maven comes with a mechanism that your project’s clients can use to download any JARs required for building your project from a central JAR repository much like Perl’s CPAN. This allows users of Maven to reuse JARs across projects and encourages communication between projects to ensure that backward compatibility issues are dealt with.
Website: maven.apache.org
Support:
Developer: The Apache Software Foundation
License: Apache License 2.0
Apache Maven is written in Java. Learn Java with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Build Systems | |
|---|---|
| Cargo | Rust package manager |
| gulp | Toolkit to automate & enhance your workflow |
| Bazel | Build and test your multi-language, multi-platform projects |
| Apache Maven | Build automation tool used primarily for Java projects |
| Gradle | Build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language |
| Meson | Next-generation build system |
| CMake | Family of tools designed to build, test and package software |
| Buck2 | Encourages the creation of small, reusable modules |
| Leiningen | Automating Clojure projects |
| Grunt | JavaScript Task Runner |
| Ninja | Small build system with a focus on speed |
| xmake | Cross-platform build utility based on Lua |
| SCons | Software construction tool |
| Pants | Scalable build system for monorepos |
| PHing | Build system based on Apache Ant |
| Rake | make-like build utility for Ruby |
| Apache Ant | Tool for automating software build processes |
| Cabal | Common Architecture for Building Applications and Libraries |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Alternatives to make | |
|---|---|
| CMake | Build system generator |
| SCons | Software construction tool |
| Maven | Build automation tool used primarily for Java projects |
| Premake | Simple build configuration |
| Ninja | Small build system with a focus on speed |
| just | Save and run project-specific commands |
| pdpmake | Public domain implementation of make which follows the POSIX standard |
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