Generate source code jar for Maven based project

The “maven-source” plugin is used to pack your source code and deploy along with your project. This is extremely useful, for developers who use your deployed project and also want to attach your source code for debugging.

1. Maven Source Plugin

Add maven-source-plugin in your pom.xml file.

  <build>
	  <plugins>
	    <plugin>
		<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
		<artifactId>maven-source-plugin</artifactId>
		<executions>
			<execution>
				<id>attach-sources</id>
				<goals>
					<goal>jar</goal>
				</goals>
			</execution>
		</executions>
	   </plugin>
	 </plugins>
  </build>

2. Deploy It

Issue “mvn install” to package and deploy your project to local repository.

D:\mkyongweb-core>mvn install
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building mkyongcore project
[INFO]    task-segment: [install]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
//...
[INFO] [jar:jar {execution: default-jar}]
[INFO] Building jar: D:\mkyongweb-core\target\mkyongcore-1.0.jar
[INFO] Preparing source:jar
[WARNING] Removing: jar from forked lifecycle, to prevent recursive invocation.
[INFO] No goals needed for project - skipping
[INFO] [source:jar {execution: attach-sources}]
[INFO] Building jar: D:\mkyongweb-core\target\mkyongcore-1.0-sources.jar
[INFO] [install:install {execution: default-install}]
[INFO] Installing D:\mkyongweb-core\target\mkyongcore-1.0.jar to D:\maven\repo\com\mky
ong\mkyongcore\1.0\mkyongcore-1.0.jar
[INFO] Installing D:\mkyongweb-core\target\mkyongcore-1.0-sources.jar to D:\maven\repo
\com\mkyong\mkyongcore\1.0\mkyongcore-1.0-sources.jar
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL

3. Output

Browse to your local repository, you will notice two jar files are created

1. mkyongcore-1.0.jar (classes)
2. mkyongcore-1.0-sources.jar (source code)