Best practices for copying files with Maven

Question

I have config files and various documents that I want to copy from the dev environment to the dev-server directory using Maven2  Strangely  Maven does not seem strong at this task    Some of the options     Simple use a copy task in Maven     lt copy file  src main resources config properties  tofile    project server config  config properties   gt      Use the Ant plugin to execute copy from Ant    Construct an artifact of type zip  alongside the  main  artifact of the POM which is usually of type jar  then unpack that artifact from the repository into the target directory  maven-resources plugin  as mentioned below  Maven Assembly plugin -- but this seems to require a lot of manual definitions  when I want to do things simply and  conventionally   This page even shows how to build a plugin to do copying  maven-upload plugin  as mentioned below  maven-dependency-plugin with copy  as mentioned below      All these seem needlessly ad hoc  Maven is supposed to excel at doing these standard  tasks without fuss and bother    Any advice

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I ve had very good experience with copy-maven-plugin  It has a much more convenient and concise syntax in comparison to maven-resources-plugin

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The ant solution above is easiest to configure  but I have had luck using the maven-upload-plugin from Atlassian   I was unable to find good documentation  here is how I use it    lt build gt     lt plugin gt       lt groupId gt com atlassian maven plugins lt  groupId gt       lt artifactId gt maven-upload-plugin lt  artifactId gt       lt version gt 1 1 lt  version gt       lt configuration gt          lt resourceSrc gt                 project build directory    project build finalName    project packaging          lt  resourceSrc gt          lt resourceDest gt   jboss deployDir  lt  resourceDest gt          lt serverId gt   jboss host  lt  serverId gt          lt url gt   jboss deployUrl  lt  url gt        lt  configuration gt     lt  plugin gt   lt  build gt    The variables like    jboss host   referenced above are defined in my    m2 settings xml and are activated using maven profiles   This solution is not constrained to JBoss  this is just what I named my variables   I have a profile for dev  test  and live   So to upload my ear to a jboss instance in test environment I would execute   mvn upload upload -P test   Here is a snipet from settings xml    lt server gt     lt id gt localhost lt  id gt     lt username gt username lt  username gt     lt password gt  Pz 6YRsDJ8dUJD7XE8   an encrypted password  Supported since maven 2 1 lt  password gt   lt  server gt       lt profiles gt     lt profile gt       lt id gt dev lt  id gt       lt properties gt         lt jboss host gt localhost lt  jboss host gt          lt jboss deployDir gt  opt jboss server default deploy  lt  jboss deployDir gt         lt jboss deployUrl gt scp   root localhost lt  jboss deployUrl gt       lt  properties gt     lt  profile gt     lt profile gt       lt id gt test lt  id gt       lt properties gt          lt jboss host gt testserver lt  jboss host gt               Notes  The Atlassian maven repo that has this plugin is here  https   maven atlassian com public   I recommend downloading the sources and looking at the documentation inside to see all the features the plugin provides

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I was able to piece together a number of different sources for this answer        lt repository gt       lt id gt atlassian lt  id gt       lt name gt Atlassian Repo lt  name gt       lt url gt https   maven atlassian com content repositories atlassian-public lt  url gt   lt  repository gt       lt dependency gt       lt groupId gt com atlassian maven plugins lt  groupId gt       lt artifactId gt maven-upload-plugin lt  artifactId gt       lt version gt 1 1 lt  version gt   lt  dependency gt       lt plugin gt       lt groupId gt com atlassian maven plugins lt  groupId gt       lt artifactId gt maven-upload-plugin lt  artifactId gt       lt version gt 1 1 lt  version gt       lt configuration gt           lt serverId gt jira-repo lt  serverId gt           lt resourceSrc gt                project build directory    project build finalName    project packaging           lt  resourceSrc gt           lt resourceDest gt opt jira webapps lt  resourceDest gt   lt  -- note  no leading slash -- gt           lt url gt scp   root jira lt  url gt       lt  configuration gt   lt  plugin gt        From    m2 settings xml        lt servers gt     lt server gt       lt id gt jira-repo lt  id gt       lt username gt myusername lt  username gt       lt password gt mypassword lt  password gt     lt  server gt   lt  servers gt        Then run the command   the -X is for debug    mvn -X upload upload

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The maven dependency plugin saved me a lot of time fondling with ant tasks    lt plugin gt       lt groupId gt org apache maven plugins lt  groupId gt       lt artifactId gt maven-dependency-plugin lt  artifactId gt       lt executions gt           lt execution gt               lt id gt install-jar lt  id gt               lt phase gt install lt  phase gt               lt goals gt                   lt goal gt copy lt  goal gt               lt  goals gt               lt configuration gt                   lt artifactItems gt                       lt artifactItem gt                           lt groupId gt     lt  groupId gt                           lt artifactId gt     lt  artifactId gt                           lt version gt     lt  version gt                       lt  artifactItem gt                   lt  artifactItems gt                   lt outputDirectory gt     lt  outputDirectory gt                   lt stripVersion gt true lt  stripVersion gt               lt  configuration gt           lt  execution gt       lt  executions gt   lt  plugin gt    The dependency copy is documentend  and has more useful goals like unpack

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A generic way to copy arbitrary files is to utilize Maven Wagon transport abstraction  It can handle various destinations via protocols like file  HTTP  FTP  SCP or WebDAV   There are a few plugins that provide facilities to copy files through the use of Wagon  Most notable are    Out-of-the-box Maven Deploy Plugin  There is the deploy-file goal  It it quite inflexible but can get the job done   mvn deploy deploy-file -Dfile  path to your file ext -DgroupId foo  -DartifactId bar -Dversion 1 0 -Durl  lt url gt  -DgeneratePom false   Significant disadvantage to using Maven Deploy Plugin is that it is designated to work with Maven repositories  It assumes particular structure and metadata  You can see that the file is placed under foo bar 1 0 file-1 0 ext and checksum files are created  There is no way around this  Wagon Maven Plugin  Use the upload-single goal   mvn org codehaus mojo wagon-maven-plugin upload-single -Dwagon fromFile  path to your file ext -Dwagon url  lt url gt    The use of Wagon Maven Plugin for copying is straightforward and seems to be the most versatile     In the examples above  lt url gt  can be of any supported protocol  See the list of existing Wagon Providers  For example   copying file locally  file    copy to copying file to remote host running SSH  scp   host 22 copy to    The examples above pass plugin parameters in the command line  Alternatively  plugins can be configured directly in POM  Then the invocation will simply be like mvn deploy deploy-file configured-execution-id  Or it can be bound to particular build phase    Please note that for protocols like SCP to work you will need to define an extension in your POM    lt build gt             lt extensions gt       lt extension gt         lt groupId gt org apache maven wagon lt  groupId gt         lt artifactId gt wagon-ssh lt  artifactId gt         lt version gt 2 12 lt  version gt       lt  extension gt     lt  extensions gt     If the destination you are copying to requires authentication  credentials can be provided via Server settings  repositoryId serverId passed to the plugins must match the server defined in the settings

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lt build gt       lt plugins gt                       lt plugin gt               lt groupId gt org apache maven plugins lt  groupId gt               lt artifactId gt maven-resources-plugin lt  artifactId gt               lt version gt 2 3 lt  version gt           lt  plugin gt       lt  plugins gt       lt resources gt           lt resource gt               lt directory gt src main java lt  directory gt               lt includes gt                   lt include gt       properties lt  include gt               lt  includes gt           lt  resource gt       lt  resources gt           lt  build gt

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Don t shy away from the Antrun plugin    Just because some people tend to think that Ant and Maven are in opposition  they are not    Use the copy task if you need to perform some unavoidable one-off customization   lt project gt             lt build gt       lt plugins gt                     lt plugin gt           lt artifactId gt maven-antrun-plugin lt  artifactId gt           lt executions gt             lt execution gt               lt phase gt deploy lt  phase gt               lt configuration gt                 lt target gt                    lt  --                   Place any Ant task here  You can add anything                   you can add between  lt target gt  and  lt  target gt  in a                   build xml                  -- gt                  lt  target gt               lt  configuration gt               lt goals gt                 lt goal gt run lt  goal gt               lt  goals gt             lt  execution gt           lt  executions gt         lt  plugin gt       lt  plugins gt     lt  build gt           lt  project gt   In answering this question  I m focusing on the details of what you asked    How do I copy a file    The question and the variable name lead me to a larger questions like   quot Is there a better way to deal with server provisioning  quot     Use Maven as a build system to generate deployable artifact  then perform these customizations either in separate modules or somewhere else entirely   If you shared a bit more of your build environment  there might be a better way - there are plugins to provision a number of servers   Could you attach an assembly that is unpacked in the server s root    What server are you using  Again  I m sure there s a better way

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To summarize some of the fine answers above  Maven is designed to build modules and copy the results to a Maven repository  Any copying of modules to a deployment installer-input directory must be done outside the context of Maven s core functionality  e g  with the Ant Maven copy command

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If someone wants total control over the path of the source and destination paths  then using maven-antrun-plugin s copy task is the best option  This approach will allow you to copy between any paths on the system  irrespective of the concerned paths being within the mvn project or not  I had a situation where I had to do some unusual stuff like copy generated source files from target directory back to the src directory for further processing  In my situation  this was the only option that worked without fuss  Sample code snippet from pom xml   lt plugin gt           lt groupId gt org apache maven plugins lt  groupId gt           lt artifactId gt maven-antrun-plugin lt  artifactId gt           lt version gt 1 8 lt  version gt           lt executions gt               lt execution gt                   lt phase gt process-resources lt  phase gt                   lt configuration gt                   lt tasks gt                       lt copy file  quot   basedir  target myome minifyJsSrcDir myome min js quot  todir  quot   basedir  src main webapp app minifyJsSrcDir quot   gt                   lt  tasks gt                   lt  configuration gt                   lt goals gt                   lt goal gt run lt  goal gt                   lt  goals gt               lt  execution gt           lt  executions gt   lt  plugin gt

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Another way is to bundle these things into an artifact using the assembly plugin  Then you can use the dependency plugin to unpack these files where you want  There are also copy goals in the dependency plugin to copy artifacts

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In order to copy a file use            lt plugin gt               lt artifactId gt maven-resources-plugin lt  artifactId gt               lt version gt 3 1 0 lt  version gt               lt executions gt                   lt execution gt                       lt id gt copy-resource-one lt  id gt                       lt phase gt install lt  phase gt                       lt goals gt                           lt goal gt copy-resources lt  goal gt                       lt  goals gt                        lt configuration gt                           lt outputDirectory gt   basedir  destination-folder lt  outputDirectory gt                           lt resources gt                               lt resource gt                                   lt directory gt  source-folder lt  directory gt                                   lt includes gt                                       lt include gt file jar lt  include gt                                   lt  includes gt                               lt  resource gt                           lt  resources gt                       lt  configuration gt                   lt  execution gt              lt  executions gt           lt  plugin gt    In order to copy folder with sub-folders use next configuration               lt configuration gt                 lt outputDirectory gt   basedir  target-folder lt  outputDirectory gt                 lt resources gt                             lt resource gt                     lt directory gt  source-folder lt  directory gt                     lt filtering gt true lt  filtering gt                   lt  resource gt                 lt  resources gt                             lt  configuration gt

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Well  maven is not supposed to be good in doing fine granular tasks  it is not a scripting language like bash or ant  it is rather declarative - you say - i need a war  or an ear  and you get it  However if you need to customize how the war or ear should look like inside  you have a problem  It is just not procedural like ant  but declarative   This have some pros in the beginning  and could have a lot of cons at the end    I guess the initial concept was to have fine plugins  that  just work  but the reality is different if you do non-standard stuff   If you however put enough effort in your poms and few custom plugins  you ll get a much better build environment as with ant for example  depends on you project of course  but it gets more and more true for bigger projects

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I can only assume that your   project server config  property is something custom defined and is outside of the standard directory layout     If so  then I d use the copy task

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For a simple copy-tasks I can recommend copy-rename-maven-plugin  It s straight forward and simple to use    lt project gt           lt build gt       lt plugins gt         lt plugin gt           lt groupId gt com coderplus maven plugins lt  groupId gt           lt artifactId gt copy-rename-maven-plugin lt  artifactId gt           lt version gt 1 0 lt  version gt           lt executions gt             lt execution gt               lt id gt copy-file lt  id gt               lt phase gt generate-sources lt  phase gt               lt goals gt                 lt goal gt copy lt  goal gt               lt  goals gt               lt configuration gt                 lt sourceFile gt src someDirectory test environment properties lt  sourceFile gt                 lt destinationFile gt target someDir environment properties lt  destinationFile gt               lt  configuration gt             lt  execution gt           lt  executions gt         lt  plugin gt       lt  plugins gt     lt  build gt   lt  project gt    If you would like to copy more than one file  replace the  lt sourceFile gt     lt  destinationFile gt  part with    lt fileSets gt     lt fileSet gt       lt sourceFile gt src someDirectory test environment properties lt  sourceFile gt       lt destinationFile gt target someDir environment properties lt  destinationFile gt     lt  fileSet gt     lt fileSet gt       lt sourceFile gt src someDirectory test logback xml lt  sourceFile gt       lt destinationFile gt target someDir logback xml lt  destinationFile gt     lt  fileSet gt                   lt  fileSets gt    Furthermore you can specify multiple executions in multiple phases if needed  the second goal is  rename   which simply does what it says while the rest of the configuration stays the same  For more usage examples refer to the Usage-Page   Note  This plugin can only copy files  not directories   Thanks to  james garriss for finding this limitation

[maven] Best practices for copying files with Maven

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