What's the difference between mvn archetype:generate and mvn archetype:create

Question

any difference between those two?

Answer 1

Check the documentation for archetype generate, create has been kept for backwards compatibility:

For backward compatibility with the Archetype Plugin version 1.0-alpha-7, we kept the old create goal which can be called using mvn archetype:create.

So create and generate will do the same thing but create has been deprecated so you should use the generate command instead.

Answer 2

archetype:create is the old and deprecated form that needed all properties defined upon start, while archetype:generate is the newer and more comfortable way. archetype:generate knows about those catalogs where archetypes are listed and can ask you for missing properties/variables.

I guess the reason for introducing a new command was that the new generate was not backward-compatible, so it might have broken existing scripts that rely on it.