Maven

This is a reference for the Maven project descriptor used in Maven.

An XSD is available at:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.1.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.1.0.xsd"
  child.project.url.inherit.append.path=.. root=.. preserve.model.version=.. >
  <modelVersion/>

  <parent>
    <groupId/>
    <artifactId/>
    <version/>
    <relativePath/>
  </parent>

  <groupId/>
  <artifactId/>
  <version/>
  <packaging/>

  <name/>
  <description/>
  <url/>
  <inceptionYear/>
  <organization>
    <name/>
    <url/>
  </organization>
  <licenses>
    <license>
      <name/>
      <url/>
      <distribution/>
      <comments/>
    </license>
  </licenses>

  <developers>
    <developer>
      <id/>
      <name/>
      <email/>
      <url/>
      <organization/>
      <organizationUrl/>
      <roles/>
      <timezone/>
      <properties>
        <key>value</key>
      </properties>
    </developer>
  </developers>
  <contributors>
    <contributor>
      <name/>
      <email/>
      <url/>
      <organization/>
      <organizationUrl/>
      <roles/>
      <timezone/>
      <properties>
        <key>value</key>
      </properties>
    </contributor>
  </contributors>

  <mailingLists>
    <mailingList>
      <name/>
      <subscribe/>
      <unsubscribe/>
      <post/>
      <archive/>
      <otherArchives/>
    </mailingList>
  </mailingLists>

  <prerequisites>
    <maven/>
  </prerequisites>

  <modules/>

  <scm child.scm.connection.inherit.append.path=.. child.scm.developerConnection.inherit.append.path=.. child.scm.url.inherit.append.path=.. >
    <connection/>
    <developerConnection/>
    <tag/>
    <url/>
  </scm>
  <issueManagement>
    <system/>
    <url/>
  </issueManagement>
  <ciManagement>
    <system/>
    <url/>
    <notifiers>
      <notifier>
        <type/>
        <sendOnError/>
        <sendOnFailure/>
        <sendOnSuccess/>
        <sendOnWarning/>
        <address/>
        <configuration>
          <key>value</key>
        </configuration>
      </notifier>
    </notifiers>
  </ciManagement>

  <distributionManagement>
    <repository>
      <uniqueVersion/>
      <releases>
        <enabled/>
        <updatePolicy/>
        <checksumPolicy/>
      </releases>
      <snapshots>
        <enabled/>
        <updatePolicy/>
        <checksumPolicy/>
      </snapshots>
      <id/>
      <name/>
      <url/>
      <layout/>
    </repository>
    <snapshotRepository>
      <uniqueVersion/>
      <releases>
        <enabled/>
        <updatePolicy/>
        <checksumPolicy/>
      </releases>
      <snapshots>
        <enabled/>
        <updatePolicy/>
        <checksumPolicy/>
      </snapshots>
      <id/>
      <name/>
      <url/>
      <layout/>
    </snapshotRepository>
    <site child.site.url.inherit.append.path=.. >
      <id/>
      <name/>
      <url/>
    </site>
    <downloadUrl/>
    <relocation>
      <groupId/>
      <artifactId/>
      <version/>
      <message/>
    </relocation>
    <status/>
  </distributionManagement>

  <properties>
    <key>value</key>
  </properties>

  <dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId/>
        <artifactId/>
        <version/>
        <type/>
        <classifier/>
        <scope/>
        <systemPath/>
        <exclusions>
          <exclusion>
            <groupId/>
            <artifactId/>
          </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
        <optional/>
      </dependency>
    </dependencies>
  </dependencyManagement>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId/>
      <artifactId/>
      <version/>
      <type/>
      <classifier/>
      <scope/>
      <systemPath/>
      <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
          <groupId/>
          <artifactId/>
        </exclusion>
      </exclusions>
      <optional/>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>

  <repositories>
    <repository>
      <releases>
        <enabled/>
        <updatePolicy/>
        <checksumPolicy/>
      </releases>
      <snapshots>
        <enabled/>
        <updatePolicy/>
        <checksumPolicy/>
      </snapshots>
      <id/>
      <name/>
      <url/>
      <layout/>
    </repository>
  </repositories>
  <pluginRepositories>
    <pluginRepository>
      <releases>
        <enabled/>
        <updatePolicy/>
        <checksumPolicy/>
      </releases>
      <snapshots>
        <enabled/>
        <updatePolicy/>
        <checksumPolicy/>
      </snapshots>
      <id/>
      <name/>
      <url/>
      <layout/>
    </pluginRepository>
  </pluginRepositories>

  <build>
    <sourceDirectory/>
    <scriptSourceDirectory/>
    <testSourceDirectory/>
    <outputDirectory/>
    <testOutputDirectory/>
    <extensions>
      <extension>
        <groupId/>
        <artifactId/>
        <version/>
        <configuration/>
      </extension>
    </extensions>
    <defaultGoal/>
    <resources>
      <resource>
        <targetPath/>
        <filtering/>
        <directory/>
        <includes/>
        <excludes/>
      </resource>
    </resources>
    <testResources>
      <testResource>
        <targetPath/>
        <filtering/>
        <directory/>
        <includes/>
        <excludes/>
      </testResource>
    </testResources>
    <directory/>
    <finalName/>
    <filters/>
    <pluginManagement>
      <plugins>
        <plugin>
          <groupId/>
          <artifactId/>
          <version/>
          <extensions/>
          <executions>
            <execution>
              <id/>
              <phase/>
              <priority/>
              <goals/>
              <inherited/>
              <configuration/>
            </execution>
          </executions>
          <dependencies>
            <dependency>
              <groupId/>
              <artifactId/>
              <version/>
              <type/>
              <classifier/>
              <scope/>
              <systemPath/>
              <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                  <groupId/>
                  <artifactId/>
                </exclusion>
              </exclusions>
              <optional/>
            </dependency>
          </dependencies>
          <inherited/>
          <configuration/>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
    </pluginManagement>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId/>
        <artifactId/>
        <version/>
        <extensions/>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id/>
            <phase/>
            <priority/>
            <goals/>
            <inherited/>
            <configuration/>
          </execution>
        </executions>
        <dependencies>
          <dependency>
            <groupId/>
            <artifactId/>
            <version/>
            <type/>
            <classifier/>
            <scope/>
            <systemPath/>
            <exclusions>
              <exclusion>
                <groupId/>
                <artifactId/>
              </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
            <optional/>
          </dependency>
        </dependencies>
        <inherited/>
        <configuration/>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  <reporting>
    <excludeDefaults/>
    <outputDirectory/>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId/>
        <artifactId/>
        <version/>
        <reportSets>
          <reportSet>
            <id/>
            <reports/>
            <inherited/>
            <configuration/>
          </reportSet>
        </reportSets>
        <inherited/>
        <configuration/>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </reporting>

  <profiles>
    <profile>
      <id/>
      <activation>
        <activeByDefault/>
        <jdk/>
        <os>
          <name/>
          <family/>
          <arch/>
          <version/>
        </os>
        <property>
          <name/>
          <value/>
        </property>
        <file>
          <missing/>
          <exists/>
        </file>
        <packaging/>
      </activation>
      <build>
        <defaultGoal/>
        <resources>
          <resource>
            <targetPath/>
            <filtering/>
            <directory/>
            <includes/>
            <excludes/>
          </resource>
        </resources>
        <testResources>
          <testResource>
            <targetPath/>
            <filtering/>
            <directory/>
            <includes/>
            <excludes/>
          </testResource>
        </testResources>
        <directory/>
        <finalName/>
        <filters/>
        <pluginManagement>
          <plugins>
            <plugin>
              <groupId/>
              <artifactId/>
              <version/>
              <extensions/>
              <executions>
                <execution>
                  <id/>
                  <phase/>
                  <priority/>
                  <goals/>
                  <inherited/>
                  <configuration/>
                </execution>
              </executions>
              <dependencies>
                <dependency>
                  <groupId/>
                  <artifactId/>
                  <version/>
                  <type/>
                  <classifier/>
                  <scope/>
                  <systemPath/>
                  <exclusions>
                    <exclusion>
                      <groupId/>
                      <artifactId/>
                    </exclusion>
                  </exclusions>
                  <optional/>
                </dependency>
              </dependencies>
              <inherited/>
              <configuration/>
            </plugin>
          </plugins>
        </pluginManagement>
        <plugins>
          <plugin>
            <groupId/>
            <artifactId/>
            <version/>
            <extensions/>
            <executions>
              <execution>
                <id/>
                <phase/>
                <priority/>
                <goals/>
                <inherited/>
                <configuration/>
              </execution>
            </executions>
            <dependencies>
              <dependency>
                <groupId/>
                <artifactId/>
                <version/>
                <type/>
                <classifier/>
                <scope/>
                <systemPath/>
                <exclusions>
                  <exclusion>
                    <groupId/>
                    <artifactId/>
                  </exclusion>
                </exclusions>
                <optional/>
              </dependency>
            </dependencies>
            <inherited/>
            <configuration/>
          </plugin>
        </plugins>
      </build>

      <modules/>

      <distributionManagement>
        <repository>
          <uniqueVersion/>
          <releases>
            <enabled/>
            <updatePolicy/>
            <checksumPolicy/>
          </releases>
          <snapshots>
            <enabled/>
            <updatePolicy/>
            <checksumPolicy/>
          </snapshots>
          <id/>
          <name/>
          <url/>
          <layout/>
        </repository>
        <snapshotRepository>
          <uniqueVersion/>
          <releases>
            <enabled/>
            <updatePolicy/>
            <checksumPolicy/>
          </releases>
          <snapshots>
            <enabled/>
            <updatePolicy/>
            <checksumPolicy/>
          </snapshots>
          <id/>
          <name/>
          <url/>
          <layout/>
        </snapshotRepository>
        <site child.site.url.inherit.append.path=.. >
          <id/>
          <name/>
          <url/>
        </site>
        <downloadUrl/>
        <relocation>
          <groupId/>
          <artifactId/>
          <version/>
          <message/>
        </relocation>
        <status/>
      </distributionManagement>

      <properties>
        <key>value</key>
      </properties>

      <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
          <dependency>
            <groupId/>
            <artifactId/>
            <version/>
            <type/>
            <classifier/>
            <scope/>
            <systemPath/>
            <exclusions>
              <exclusion>
                <groupId/>
                <artifactId/>
              </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
            <optional/>
          </dependency>
        </dependencies>
      </dependencyManagement>
      <dependencies>
        <dependency>
          <groupId/>
          <artifactId/>
          <version/>
          <type/>
          <classifier/>
          <scope/>
          <systemPath/>
          <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
              <groupId/>
              <artifactId/>
            </exclusion>
          </exclusions>
          <optional/>
        </dependency>
      </dependencies>

      <repositories>
        <repository>
          <releases>
            <enabled/>
            <updatePolicy/>
            <checksumPolicy/>
          </releases>
          <snapshots>
            <enabled/>
            <updatePolicy/>
            <checksumPolicy/>
          </snapshots>
          <id/>
          <name/>
          <url/>
          <layout/>
        </repository>
      </repositories>
      <pluginRepositories>
        <pluginRepository>
          <releases>
            <enabled/>
            <updatePolicy/>
            <checksumPolicy/>
          </releases>
          <snapshots>
            <enabled/>
            <updatePolicy/>
            <checksumPolicy/>
          </snapshots>
          <id/>
          <name/>
          <url/>
          <layout/>
        </pluginRepository>
      </pluginRepositories>
      <reporting>
        <excludeDefaults/>
        <outputDirectory/>
        <plugins>
          <plugin>
            <groupId/>
            <artifactId/>
            <version/>
            <reportSets>
              <reportSet>
                <id/>
                <reports/>
                <inherited/>
                <configuration/>
              </reportSet>
            </reportSets>
            <inherited/>
            <configuration/>
          </plugin>
        </plugins>
      </reporting>
    </profile>
  </profiles>
</project>

project

The element is the root of the descriptor. The following table lists all of the possible child elements.

Attribute Type Description
child.project.url.inherit.append.path String When children inherit from project's url, append path or not? Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean

Default value is: true

Since: Maven 3.6.1
root boolean Indicates that this project is the root project, located in the upper directory of the source tree. This is the directory which may contain the .mvn directory.

Since: Maven 4.0.0

Default value: false
preserve.model.version boolean Indicates if the build POM for this project should be preserved or downgraded to the lowest compatible version.

Since: Maven 4.0.0

Default value: false
Element Type Description
modelVersion String Declares to which version of project descriptor this POM conforms.
parent Parent The location of the parent project, if one exists. Values from the parent project will be the default for this project if they are left unspecified. The location is given as a group ID, artifact ID and version.
groupId String A universally unique identifier for a project. It is normal to use a fully-qualified package name to distinguish it from other projects with a similar name (eg. org.apache.maven).
artifactId String The identifier for this artifact that is unique within the group given by the group ID. An artifact is something that is either produced or used by a project. Examples of artifacts produced by Maven for a project include: JARs, source and binary distributions, and WARs.
version String The current version of the artifact produced by this project.
packaging String The type of artifact this project produces, for example jar, war, ear, pom. Plugins can create their own packaging, and therefore their own packaging types, so this list does not contain all possible types.

Default value: jar
name String The full name of the project.
description String A detailed description of the project, used by Maven whenever it needs to describe the project, such as on the website. While this element can be specified as CDATA to enable the use of HTML tags within the description, it is discouraged to allow plain text representation. If you need to modify the index page of the generated website, you are able to specify your own instead of adjusting this text.
url String The URL to the project's homepage.

Default value is: parent value [+ path adjustment] + (artifactId or project.directory property), or just parent value if project's child.project.url.inherit.append.path="false"
inceptionYear String The year of the project's inception, specified with 4 digits. This value is used when generating copyright notices as well as being informational.
organization Organization This element describes various attributes of the organization to which the project belongs. These attributes are utilized when documentation is created (for copyright notices and links).
licenses/license* List<License> (Many) This element describes all the licenses for this project. Each license is described by a license element, which is then described by additional elements. Projects should only list the license(s) that applies to the project and not the licenses that apply to dependencies. If multiple licenses are listed, it is assumed that the user can select any of them, not that they must accept all.
developers/developer* List<Developer> (Many) Describes the committers of a project.
contributors/contributor* List<Contributor> (Many) Describes the contributors to a project that are not yet committers.
mailingLists/mailingList* List<MailingList> (Many) Contains information about a project's mailing lists.
prerequisites Prerequisites Describes the prerequisites in the build environment for this project.
modules/module* List<String> (Many) The modules (sometimes called subprojects) to build as a part of this project. Each module listed is a relative path to the directory containing the module. To be consistent with the way default urls are calculated from parent, it is recommended to have module names match artifact ids.
scm Scm Specification for the SCM used by the project, such as CVS, Subversion, etc.
issueManagement IssueManagement The project's issue management system information.
ciManagement CiManagement The project's continuous integration information.
distributionManagement DistributionManagement Distribution information for a project that enables deployment of the site and artifacts to remote web servers and repositories respectively.
properties/key=value* Properties (Many) Properties that can be used throughout the POM as a substitution, and are used as filters in resources if enabled. The format is value .
dependencyManagement DependencyManagement Default dependency information for projects that inherit from this one. The dependencies in this section are not immediately resolved. Instead, when a POM derived from this one declares a dependency described by a matching groupId and artifactId, the version and other values from this section are used for that dependency if they were not already specified.
dependencies/dependency* List<Dependency> (Many) This element describes all the dependencies associated with a project. These dependencies are used to construct a classpath for your project during the build process. They are automatically downloaded from the repositories defined in this project.
repositories/repository* List<Repository> (Many) The lists of the remote repositories for discovering dependencies and extensions.
pluginRepositories/pluginRepository* List<Repository> (Many) The lists of the remote repositories for discovering plugins for builds and reports.
build Build Information required to build the project.
reporting Reporting This element includes the specification of report plugins to use to generate the reports on the Maven-generated site. These reports will be run when a user executes mvn site. All the reports will be included in the navigation bar for browsing.
profiles/profile* List<Profile> (Many) A listing of project-local build profiles which will modify the build process when activated.

parent

The element contains information required to locate the parent project from which this project will inherit from.

Note: The children of this element are not interpolated and must be given as literal values.

Element Type Description
groupId String The group id of the parent project to inherit from.
artifactId String The artifact id of the parent project to inherit from.
version String The version of the parent project to inherit.
relativePath String The relative path of the parent pom.xml file within the checkout. If not specified, it defaults to ../pom.xml. Maven looks for the parent POM first in this location on the filesystem, then the local repository, and lastly in the remote repo. relativePath allows you to select a different location, for example when your structure is flat, or deeper without an intermediate parent POM. However, the group ID, artifact ID and version are still required, and must match the file in the location given, or it will revert to the repository for the POM. This feature is only for enhancing the development in a local checkout of that project. Set the value to an empty string in case you want to disable the feature and always resolve the parent POM from the repositories.

Default value: ..

organization

Specifies the organization that produces this project.

Element Type Description
name String The full name of the organization.
url String The URL to the organization's home page.

license

Describes the licenses for this project. This is used to generate the license page of the project's website, as well as being taken into consideration in other reporting and validation. The licenses listed for the project are that of the project itself, and not of dependencies.

Element Type Description
name String The full legal name of the license.
url String The official url for the license text.
distribution String The primary method by which this project may be distributed.
repo
may be downloaded from the Maven repository
manual
user must manually download and install the dependency.
comments String Addendum information pertaining to this license.

developer

Information about one of the committers on this project.

Element Type Description
id String The unique ID of the developer in the SCM.
name String The full name of the contributor.
email String The email address of the contributor.
url String The URL for the homepage of the contributor.
organization String The organization to which the contributor belongs.
organizationUrl String The URL of the organization.
roles/role* List<String> (Many) The roles the contributor plays in the project. Each role is described by a role element, the body of which is a role name. This can also be used to describe the contribution.
timezone String The timezone the contributor is in. Typically, this is a number in the range -12 to +14 or a valid time zone id like "America/Montreal" (UTC-05:00) or "Europe/Paris" (UTC+01:00).
properties/key=value* Properties (Many) Properties about the contributor, such as an instant messenger handle.

contributor

Description of a person who has contributed to the project, but who does not have commit privileges. Usually, these contributions come in the form of patches submitted.

Element Type Description
name String The full name of the contributor.
email String The email address of the contributor.
url String The URL for the homepage of the contributor.
organization String The organization to which the contributor belongs.
organizationUrl String The URL of the organization.
roles/role* List<String> (Many) The roles the contributor plays in the project. Each role is described by a role element, the body of which is a role name. This can also be used to describe the contribution.
timezone String The timezone the contributor is in. Typically, this is a number in the range -12 to +14 or a valid time zone id like "America/Montreal" (UTC-05:00) or "Europe/Paris" (UTC+01:00).
properties/key=value* Properties (Many) Properties about the contributor, such as an instant messenger handle.

mailingList

This element describes all of the mailing lists associated with a project. The auto-generated site references this information.

Element Type Description
name String The name of the mailing list.
subscribe String The email address or link that can be used to subscribe to the mailing list. If this is an email address, a mailto: link will automatically be created when the documentation is created.
unsubscribe String The email address or link that can be used to unsubscribe to the mailing list. If this is an email address, a mailto: link will automatically be created when the documentation is created.
post String The email address or link that can be used to post to the mailing list. If this is an email address, a mailto: link will automatically be created when the documentation is created.
archive String The link to a URL where you can browse the mailing list archive.
otherArchives/otherArchive* List<String> (Many) The link to alternate URLs where you can browse the list archive.

prerequisites

Describes the prerequisites a project can have.

Element Type Description
maven String For a plugin project (packaging is maven-plugin), the minimum version of Maven required to use the resulting plugin.
In Maven 2, this was also specifying the minimum version of Maven required to build a project, but this usage is deprecated in Maven 3 and not checked any more: use the Maven Enforcer Plugin's requireMavenVersion rule instead.

Default value: 2.0

scm

The element contains information required to the SCM (Source Control Management) of the project.

Attribute Type Description
child.scm.connection.inherit.append.path String When children inherit from scm connection, append path or not? Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean

Default value is: true

Since: Maven 3.6.1
child.scm.developerConnection.inherit.append.path String When children inherit from scm developer connection, append path or not? Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean

Default value is: true

Since: Maven 3.6.1
child.scm.url.inherit.append.path String When children inherit from scm url, append path or not? Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean
Default value is: true

Since: Maven 3.6.1
Element Type Description
connection String The source control management system URL that describes the repository and how to connect to the repository. This connection is read-only.
Default value is: parent value [+ path adjustment] + (artifactId or project.directory property), or just parent value if scm's child.scm.connection.inherit.append.path="false"
developerConnection String Just like connection, but for developers, i.e. this scm connection will not be read only.

Default value is: parent value [+ path adjustment] + (artifactId or project.directory property), or just parent value if scm's child.scm.developerConnection.inherit.append.path="false".
tag String The tag of current code. By default, it's set to HEAD during development.

Default value: HEAD
url String The URL to the project's browsable SCM repository, such as ViewVC or Fisheye.

Default value is: parent value [+ path adjustment] + (artifactId or project.directory property), or just parent value if scm's child.scm.url.inherit.append.path="false"

issueManagement

Information about the issue tracking (or bug tracking) system used to manage this project.

Element Type Description
system String The name of the issue management system, e.g. Bugzilla
url String URL for the issue management system used by the project.

ciManagement

The element contains information required to the continuous integration system of the project.

Element Type Description
system String The name of the continuous integration system, e.g. continuum.
url String URL for the continuous integration system used by the project if it has a web interface.
notifiers/notifier* List<Notifier> (Many) Configuration for notifying developers/users when a build is unsuccessful, including user information and notification mode.

notifier

Configures one method for notifying users/developers when a build breaks.

Element Type Description
type String The mechanism used to deliver notifications.

Default value: mail
sendOnError boolean Whether to send notifications on error.

Default value: true
sendOnFailure boolean Whether to send notifications on failure.

Default value: true
sendOnSuccess boolean Whether to send notifications on success.

Default value: true
sendOnWarning boolean Whether to send notifications on warning.

Default value: true
address String
configuration/key=value* Properties (Many) Extended configuration specific to this notifier goes here.

distributionManagement

This elements describes all that pertains to distribution for a project. It is primarily used for deployment of artifacts and the site produced by the build.

Element Type Description
repository DeploymentRepository Information needed to deploy the artifacts generated by the project to a remote repository.
snapshotRepository DeploymentRepository Where to deploy snapshots of artifacts to. If not given, it defaults to the repository element.
site Site Information needed for deploying the web site of the project.
downloadUrl String The URL of the project's download page. If not given users will be referred to the homepage given by url. This is given to assist in locating artifacts that are not in the repository due to licensing restrictions.
relocation Relocation Relocation information of the artifact if it has been moved to a new group ID and/or artifact ID.
status String Gives the status of this artifact in the remote repository. This must not be set in your local project, as it is updated by tools placing it in the repository. Valid values are: none (default), converted (repository manager converted this from an Maven 1 POM), partner (directly synced from a partner Maven 2 repository), deployed (was deployed from a Maven 2 instance), verified (has been hand verified as correct and final).

repository

Deployment repository contains the information needed for deploying to the remote repository, which adds uniqueVersion property to usual repositories for download.

Element Type Description
uniqueVersion boolean Whether to assign snapshots a unique version comprised of the timestamp and build number, or to use the same version each time

Default value: true
releases RepositoryPolicy How to handle downloading of releases from this repository.
snapshots RepositoryPolicy How to handle downloading of snapshots from this repository.
id String A unique identifier for a repository. This is used to match the repository to configuration in the settings.xml file, for example. Furthermore, the identifier is used during POM inheritance and profile injection to detect repositories that should be merged.
name String Human readable name of the repository.
url String The url of the repository, in the form protocol://hostname/path.
layout String The type of layout this repository uses for locating and storing artifacts - can be legacy or default.

Default value: default

releases

Download policy.

Element Type Description
enabled String Whether to use this repository for downloading this type of artifact. Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean. Default value is true.
updatePolicy String The frequency for downloading updates - can be always, daily (default), interval:XXX (in minutes) or never (only if it doesn't exist locally).
checksumPolicy String What to do when verification of an artifact checksum fails. Valid values are ignore, fail (default for Maven 4 and above) or warn (default for Maven 2 and 3).

snapshots

Download policy.

Element Type Description
enabled String Whether to use this repository for downloading this type of artifact. Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean. Default value is true.
updatePolicy String The frequency for downloading updates - can be always, daily (default), interval:XXX (in minutes) or never (only if it doesn't exist locally).
checksumPolicy String What to do when verification of an artifact checksum fails. Valid values are ignore, fail (default for Maven 4 and above) or warn (default for Maven 2 and 3).

snapshotRepository

Deployment repository contains the information needed for deploying to the remote repository, which adds uniqueVersion property to usual repositories for download.

Element Type Description
uniqueVersion boolean Whether to assign snapshots a unique version comprised of the timestamp and build number, or to use the same version each time

Default value: true
releases RepositoryPolicy How to handle downloading of releases from this repository.
snapshots RepositoryPolicy How to handle downloading of snapshots from this repository.
id String A unique identifier for a repository. This is used to match the repository to configuration in the settings.xml file, for example. Furthermore, the identifier is used during POM inheritance and profile injection to detect repositories that should be merged.
name String Human readable name of the repository.
url String The url of the repository, in the form protocol://hostname/path.
layout String The type of layout this repository uses for locating and storing artifacts - can be legacy or default.

Default value: default

site

Contains the information needed for deploying websites.

Attribute Type Description
child.site.url.inherit.append.path String When children inherit from distribution management site url, append path or not? Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean

Default value is: true

Since: Maven 3.6.1
Element Type Description
id String A unique identifier for a deployment location. This is used to match the site to configuration in the settings.xml file, for example.
name String Human readable name of the deployment location.
url String The url of the location where website is deployed, in the form protocol://hostname/path.

Default value is: parent value [+ path adjustment] + (artifactId or project.directory property), or just parent value if site's child.site.url.inherit.append.path="false".

relocation

Describes where an artifact has moved to. If any of the values are omitted, it is assumed to be the same as it was before.

Element Type Description
groupId String The group ID the artifact has moved to.
artifactId String The new artifact ID of the artifact.
version String The new version of the artifact.
message String An additional message to show the user about the move, such as the reason.

dependencyManagement

Section for management of default dependency information for use in a group of POMs.

Element Type Description
dependencies/dependency* List<Dependency> (Many) The dependencies specified here are not used until they are referenced in a POM within the group. This allows the specification of a "standard" version for a particular dependency.

dependency

The element contains information about a dependency of the project.

Element Type Description
groupId String The project group that produced the dependency, e.g. org.apache.maven.
artifactId String The unique id for an artifact produced by the project group, e.g. maven-artifact.
version String The version of the dependency, e.g. 3.2.1. Since Maven 2, this can also be specified as a range of versions.
type String The type of dependency, that will be mapped to a file extension, an optional classifier, and a few other attributes. Some examples are jar, war, ejb-client and test-jar: see default artifact handlers for a list. New types can be defined by extensions, so this is not a complete list.

Default value: jar
classifier String The classifier of the dependency. It is appended to the filename after the version. This allows:
  • referring to attached artifact, for example sources and javadoc: see default artifact handlers for a list,
  • distinguishing two artifacts that belong to the same POM but were built differently. For example, jdk14 and jdk15.
scope String The scope of the dependency - compile, runtime, test, system, and provided. Used to calculate the various classpaths used for compilation, testing, and so on. It also assists in determining which artifacts to include in a distribution of this project. For more information, see the dependency mechanism. The default scope is compile.
systemPath String FOR SYSTEM SCOPE ONLY. Note that use of this property is discouraged and may be replaced in later versions. This specifies the path on the filesystem for this dependency. Requires an absolute path for the value, not relative. Use a property that gives the machine specific absolute path, e.g. ${java.home}.
exclusions/exclusion* List<Exclusion> (Many) Lists a set of artifacts that should be excluded from this dependency's artifact list when it comes to calculating transitive dependencies.
optional String Indicates the dependency is optional for use of this library. While the version of the dependency will be taken into account for dependency calculation if the library is used elsewhere, it will not be passed on transitively. Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean. Default value is false.

exclusion

The element contains information required to exclude an artifact to the project.

The groupId and artifactId fields are interpreted as glob patterns.

Element Type Description
groupId String The group ID of the project to exclude.
artifactId String The artifact ID of the project to exclude.

repository

A repository contains the information needed for establishing connections with remote repository.

Element Type Description
releases RepositoryPolicy How to handle downloading of releases from this repository.
snapshots RepositoryPolicy How to handle downloading of snapshots from this repository.
id String A unique identifier for a repository. This is used to match the repository to configuration in the settings.xml file, for example. Furthermore, the identifier is used during POM inheritance and profile injection to detect repositories that should be merged.
name String Human readable name of the repository.
url String The url of the repository, in the form protocol://hostname/path.
layout String The type of layout this repository uses for locating and storing artifacts - can be legacy or default.

Default value: default

pluginRepository

A repository contains the information needed for establishing connections with remote repository.

Element Type Description
releases RepositoryPolicy How to handle downloading of releases from this repository.
snapshots RepositoryPolicy How to handle downloading of snapshots from this repository.
id String A unique identifier for a repository. This is used to match the repository to configuration in the settings.xml file, for example. Furthermore, the identifier is used during POM inheritance and profile injection to detect repositories that should be merged.
name String Human readable name of the repository.
url String The url of the repository, in the form protocol://hostname/path.
layout String The type of layout this repository uses for locating and storing artifacts - can be legacy or default.

Default value: default

build

The element contains information required to build the project. Default values are defined in Super POM.

Element Type Description
sourceDirectory String This element specifies a directory containing the source of the project. The generated build system will compile the sources from this directory when the project is built. The path given is relative to the project descriptor. The default value is src/main/java.
scriptSourceDirectory String This element specifies a directory containing the script sources of the project. This directory is meant to be different from the sourceDirectory, in that its contents will be copied to the output directory in most cases (since scripts are interpreted rather than compiled). The default value is src/main/scripts.
testSourceDirectory String This element specifies a directory containing the unit test source of the project. The generated build system will compile these directories when the project is being tested. The path given is relative to the project descriptor. The default value is src/test/java.
outputDirectory String The directory where compiled application classes are placed. The default value is target/classes.
testOutputDirectory String The directory where compiled test classes are placed. The default value is target/test-classes.
extensions/extension* List<Extension> (Many) A set of build extensions to use from this project.
defaultGoal String The default goal (or phase in Maven 2) to execute when none is specified for the project. Note that in case of a multi-module build, only the default goal of the top-level project is relevant, i.e. the default goals of child modules are ignored. Since Maven 3, multiple goals/phases can be separated by whitespace.
resources/resource* List<Resource> (Many) This element describes all the classpath resources such as properties files associated with a project. These resources are often included in the final package. The default value is src/main/resources.
testResources/testResource* List<Resource> (Many) This element describes all the classpath resources such as properties files associated with a project's unit tests. The default value is src/test/resources.
directory String The directory where all files generated by the build are placed. The default value is target.
finalName String The filename (excluding the extension, and with no path information) that the produced artifact will be called. The default value is ${artifactId}-${version}.
filters/filter* List<String> (Many) The list of filter properties files that are used when filtering is enabled.
pluginManagement PluginManagement Default plugin information to be made available for reference by projects derived from this one. This plugin configuration will not be resolved or bound to the lifecycle unless referenced. Any local configuration for a given plugin will override the plugin's entire definition here.
plugins/plugin* List<Plugin> (Many) The list of plugins to use.

extension

Describes a build extension to utilise.

Element Type Description
groupId String The group ID of the extension's artifact.
artifactId String The artifact ID of the extension.
version String The version of the extension.
configuration DOM The configuration of the extension.

Since: Maven 4.0.0

resource

This element describes all of the classpath resources associated with a project or unit tests.

Element Type Description
targetPath String Describe the resource target path. The path is relative to the target/classes directory (i.e. ${project.build.outputDirectory}). For example, if you want that resource to appear in a specific package (org.apache.maven.messages), you must specify this element with this value: org/apache/maven/messages. This is not required if you simply put the resources in that directory structure at the source, however.
filtering String Whether resources are filtered to replace tokens with parameterised values or not. The values are taken from the properties element and from the properties in the files listed in the filters element. Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean. Default value is false.
directory String Describe the directory where the resources are stored. The path is relative to the POM.
includes/include* List<String> (Many) A list of patterns to include, e.g. **/*.xml.
excludes/exclude* List<String> (Many) A list of patterns to exclude, e.g. **/*.xml

testResource

This element describes all of the classpath resources associated with a project or unit tests.

Element Type Description
targetPath String Describe the resource target path. The path is relative to the target/classes directory (i.e. ${project.build.outputDirectory}). For example, if you want that resource to appear in a specific package (org.apache.maven.messages), you must specify this element with this value: org/apache/maven/messages. This is not required if you simply put the resources in that directory structure at the source, however.
filtering String Whether resources are filtered to replace tokens with parameterised values or not. The values are taken from the properties element and from the properties in the files listed in the filters element. Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean. Default value is false.
directory String Describe the directory where the resources are stored. The path is relative to the POM.
includes/include* List<String> (Many) A list of patterns to include, e.g. **/*.xml.
excludes/exclude* List<String> (Many) A list of patterns to exclude, e.g. **/*.xml

pluginManagement

Section for management of default plugin information for use in a group of POMs.

Element Type Description
plugins/plugin* List<Plugin> (Many) The list of plugins to use.

plugin

The element contains information required for a plugin.

Element Type Description
groupId String The group ID of the plugin in the repository.

Default value: org.apache.maven.plugins
artifactId String The artifact ID of the plugin in the repository.
version String The version (or valid range of versions) of the plugin to be used.
extensions String Whether to load Maven extensions (such as packaging and type handlers) from this plugin. For performance reasons, this should only be enabled when necessary. Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean. Default value is false.
executions/execution* List<PluginExecution> (Many) Multiple specifications of a set of goals to execute during the build lifecycle, each having (possibly) a different configuration.
dependencies/dependency* List<Dependency> (Many) Additional dependencies that this project needs to introduce to the plugin's classloader.
inherited String Whether any configuration should be propagated to child POMs. Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean. Default value is true.
configuration DOM

The configuration as DOM object.

By default, every element content is trimmed, but starting with Maven 3.1.0, you can add xml:space="preserve" to elements you want to preserve whitespace.

You can control how child POMs inherit configuration from parent POMs by adding combine.children or combine.self attributes to the children of the configuration element:

  • combine.children: available values are merge (default) and append,
  • combine.self: available values are merge (default) and override.

execution

The @lt;execution> element contains information required for the execution of a plugin.

Element Type Description
id String The identifier of this execution for labelling the goals during the build, and for matching executions to merge during inheritance and profile injection.

Default value: default
phase String The build lifecycle phase to bind the goals in this execution to. If omitted, the goals will be bound to the default phase specified by the plugin.
priority int The priority of this execution compared to other executions which are bound to the same phase. Executions derived from the default lifecycle have a negative priority by default so that they are executed before any custom plugin executions.

Since: Maven 4.0.0

Default value: 0
goals/goal* List<String> (Many) The goals to execute with the given configuration.
inherited String Whether any configuration should be propagated to child POMs. Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean. Default value is true.
configuration DOM

The configuration as DOM object.

By default, every element content is trimmed, but starting with Maven 3.1.0, you can add xml:space="preserve" to elements you want to preserve whitespace.

You can control how child POMs inherit configuration from parent POMs by adding combine.children or combine.self attributes to the children of the configuration element:

  • combine.children: available values are merge (default) and append,
  • combine.self: available values are merge (default) and override.

reporting

Section for management of reports and their configuration.

Element Type Description
excludeDefaults String If true, then the default reports are not included in the site generation. This includes the reports in the "Project Info" menu. Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean. Default value is false.
outputDirectory String Where to store all the generated reports. The default is ${project.build.directory}/site.
plugins/plugin* List<ReportPlugin> (Many) The reporting plugins to use and their configuration.

plugin

The element in contains information required for a report plugin.

Element Type Description
groupId String The group ID of the reporting plugin in the repository.

Default value: org.apache.maven.plugins
artifactId String The artifact ID of the reporting plugin in the repository.
version String The version of the reporting plugin to be used. Starting with Maven 3, if no version is defined explicitly, version is searched in build/plugins then in build/pluginManagement.
reportSets/reportSet* List<ReportSet> (Many) Multiple specifications of a set of reports, each having (possibly) different configuration. This is the reporting parallel to an execution in the build.
inherited String Whether any configuration should be propagated to child POMs. Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean. Default value is true.
configuration DOM

The configuration as DOM object.

By default, every element content is trimmed, but starting with Maven 3.1.0, you can add xml:space="preserve" to elements you want to preserve whitespace.

You can control how child POMs inherit configuration from parent POMs by adding combine.children or combine.self attributes to the children of the configuration element:

  • combine.children: available values are merge (default) and append,
  • combine.self: available values are merge (default) and override.

reportSet

Represents a set of reports and configuration to be used to generate them.

Element Type Description
id String The unique id for this report set, to be used during POM inheritance and profile injection for merging of report sets.

Default value: default
reports/report* List<String> (Many) The list of reports from this plugin which should be generated from this set.
inherited String Whether any configuration should be propagated to child POMs. Note: While the type of this field is String for technical reasons, the semantic type is actually Boolean. Default value is true.
configuration DOM

The configuration as DOM object.

By default, every element content is trimmed, but starting with Maven 3.1.0, you can add xml:space="preserve" to elements you want to preserve whitespace.

You can control how child POMs inherit configuration from parent POMs by adding combine.children or combine.self attributes to the children of the configuration element:

  • combine.children: available values are merge (default) and append,
  • combine.self: available values are merge (default) and override.

profile

Modifications to the build process which is activated based on environmental parameters or command line arguments.

Element Type Description
id String The identifier of this build profile. This is used for command line activation, and identifies profiles to be merged.

Default value: default
activation Activation The conditional logic which will automatically trigger the inclusion of this profile.
build BuildBase Information required to build the project.
modules/module* List<String> (Many) The modules (sometimes called subprojects) to build as a part of this project. Each module listed is a relative path to the directory containing the module. To be consistent with the way default urls are calculated from parent, it is recommended to have module names match artifact ids.
distributionManagement DistributionManagement Distribution information for a project that enables deployment of the site and artifacts to remote web servers and repositories respectively.
properties/key=value* Properties (Many) Properties that can be used throughout the POM as a substitution, and are used as filters in resources if enabled. The format is value .
dependencyManagement DependencyManagement Default dependency information for projects that inherit from this one. The dependencies in this section are not immediately resolved. Instead, when a POM derived from this one declares a dependency described by a matching groupId and artifactId, the version and other values from this section are used for that dependency if they were not already specified.
dependencies/dependency* List<Dependency> (Many) This element describes all the dependencies associated with a project. These dependencies are used to construct a classpath for your project during the build process. They are automatically downloaded from the repositories defined in this project.
repositories/repository* List<Repository> (Many) The lists of the remote repositories for discovering dependencies and extensions.
pluginRepositories/pluginRepository* List<Repository> (Many) The lists of the remote repositories for discovering plugins for builds and reports.
reporting Reporting This element includes the specification of report plugins to use to generate the reports on the Maven-generated site. These reports will be run when a user executes mvn site. All the reports will be included in the navigation bar for browsing.

activation

The conditions within the build runtime environment which will trigger the automatic inclusion of the build profile. Multiple conditions can be defined, which must be all satisfied to activate the profile.

Element Type Description
activeByDefault boolean If set to true, this profile will be active unless another profile in this pom is activated using the command line -P option or by one of that profile's activators.

Default value: false
jdk String Specifies that this profile will be activated when a matching JDK is detected. For example, 1.4 only activates on JDKs versioned 1.4, while !1.4 matches any JDK that is not version 1.4. Ranges are supported too: [1.5,) activates when the JDK is 1.5 minimum.
os ActivationOS Specifies that this profile will be activated when matching operating system attributes are detected.
property ActivationProperty Specifies that this profile will be activated when this property is specified.
file ActivationFile Specifies that this profile will be activated based on existence of a file.
packaging String Specifies that this profile will be activated based on the project's packaging.

os

This is an activator which will detect an operating system's attributes in order to activate its profile.

Element Type Description
name String The name of the operating system to be used to activate the profile. This must be an exact match of the ${os.name} Java property, such as Windows XP.
family String The general family of the OS to be used to activate the profile, such as windows or unix.
arch String The architecture of the operating system to be used to activate the profile.
version String The version of the operating system to be used to activate the profile.

property

This is the property specification used to activate a profile. If the value field is empty, then the existence of the named property will activate the profile, otherwise it does a case-sensitive match against the property value as well.

Element Type Description
name String The name of the property to be used to activate a profile.
value String The value of the property required to activate a profile.

file

This is the file specification used to activate the profile. The missing value is the location of a file that needs to exist, and if it doesn't, the profile will be activated. On the other hand, exists will test for the existence of the file and if it is there, the profile will be activated.

Variable interpolation for these file specifications is limited to ${project.basedir}, system properties and user properties.

Element Type Description
missing String The name of the file that must be missing to activate the profile.
exists String The name of the file that must exist to activate the profile.

build

Build configuration in a profile.

Element Type Description
defaultGoal String The default goal (or phase in Maven 2) to execute when none is specified for the project. Note that in case of a multi-module build, only the default goal of the top-level project is relevant, i.e. the default goals of child modules are ignored. Since Maven 3, multiple goals/phases can be separated by whitespace.
resources/resource* List<Resource> (Many) This element describes all the classpath resources such as properties files associated with a project. These resources are often included in the final package. The default value is src/main/resources.
testResources/testResource* List<Resource> (Many) This element describes all the classpath resources such as properties files associated with a project's unit tests. The default value is src/test/resources.
directory String The directory where all files generated by the build are placed. The default value is target.
finalName String The filename (excluding the extension, and with no path information) that the produced artifact will be called. The default value is ${artifactId}-${version}.
filters/filter* List<String> (Many) The list of filter properties files that are used when filtering is enabled.
pluginManagement PluginManagement Default plugin information to be made available for reference by projects derived from this one. This plugin configuration will not be resolved or bound to the lifecycle unless referenced. Any local configuration for a given plugin will override the plugin's entire definition here.
plugins/plugin* List<Plugin> (Many) The list of plugins to use.