maven-dependency-plugin ignores outputDirectory configuration

Question

I want to create a jar file with my main java project and all of it\'s dependencies. so I created the following plugin definition in the pom file:

Answer 1

That is normal: you configured a special execution of the maven-dependency-plugin, named copy-dependencies, however, invoking the goal dependency:copy-dependencies directly on the command line creates a default execution, which is different than the one you configured. Thus, your configuration isn't taken into account.

In Maven, there are 2 places where you can configure plugins: either for all executions (using at the level) or for each execution (using at the level).

There are several ways to solve your issue:

• Move the outside of the , and make it general for all executions. You would have:

  
    maven-dependency-plugin
    2.5.1
    
      
      runtime
      ${project.build.directory}/dependency-jars/
    
  
  

  Note that, with this, all executions of the plugin will use this configuration (unless overriden inside a specific execution configuration).

• Execute on the command line a specific execution, i.e. the one you configured. This is possible since Maven 3.3.1 and you would execute

  mvn dependency:copy-dependencies@copy-dependencies
  

  The @copy-dependencies is used to refer to the of the execution you want to invoke.

• Bind your execution to a specific phase of the Maven lifecycle, and let it be executed with the normal flow of the lifecycle. In your configuration, it is already bound to the package phase with package. So, invoking mvn clean package would work and copy your dependencies at the configured location.