Renaming resources in Maven

Question

I am trying to find a way to copy a resource file to a new name in the target directory in a Maven build. Pretty much everything I have found while searching suggests workarounds involving multiple sub-directories in /src/main/resources and selecting among them via profiles. However, in my case, this does not solve the problem, namely that the file I want has a "magic" name.

Basically what I want to do is have a /src/main/resources/default.DS_Store file get copied to ${project.build.directory}/.DS_Store. Since the .DS_Store file has special meaning in Mac OSX, it is not desirable to have a file with that name in the source tree, and in version control. However, I do want the data in the file to be in the source tree and version control, and have it renamed to the "magic" name during the build.

I'm starting to think that ant is the only way to do this automatically. Is there any easier way?

http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-resources-plugin/ This might help you, — jmj, Oct 22 '10 at 15:57
The resources plugin does not allow renaming. That's my problem. — wmorrell, Oct 22 '10 at 16:05
You can also look at http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/ . But I am not sure you can rename files: I never used this plugin this way. — Benoit Courtine, Oct 22 '10 at 16:06
I found [this post](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16242759/how-can-i-create-a-maven-build-profile-to-conditionally-copy-files) helpful - I didn't need to rename the resource just select the right one based on a property. — JonnyRaa, Jun 16 '14 at 09:10

coderplus · Answer 1 · 2015-05-07T02:41:54.727

Using the antrun-maven-plugin makes it easy, but in case you are looking for a more mavenish way which is supported within eclipse m2e, then you can use the copy-rename-maven-plugin

  <plugin>
    <groupId>com.coderplus.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>copy-rename-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.1</version>
    <executions>
      <execution>
        <id>rename-file</id>
        <phase>compile</phase>
        <goals>
          <goal>rename</goal>
        </goals>
        <configuration>
          <sourceFile>${project.build.outputDirectory}/default.DS_Store</sourceFile>
          <destinationFile>${project.build.outputDirectory}/.DS_Store</destinationFile>
        </configuration>
      </execution>
    </executions>
  </plugin>

And in case you have any feedback/issues with the plugin, you can reach out at https://github.com/coderplus/copy-rename-maven-plugin/

score 22 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 15 '14 at 13:50

Example usage of the assembly plugin to copy and/or rename a file:

pom file:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>test</groupId>
  <artifactId>test</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
   <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.2.1</version>
        <configuration>
          <descriptors>
            <descriptor>src/main/descriptors/example.xml</descriptor>
          </descriptors>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

Descriptor file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<assembly>
       <id>example</id>
       <formats>
              <format>dir</format>
       </formats>
       <files>
              <file>
                     <source>src/main/resources/something.properties</source>
                     <outputDirectory>/</outputDirectory>
                     <destName>something.properties</destName>
              </file>
              <file>
                     <source>src/main/resources/something.properties</source>
                     <outputDirectory>/</outputDirectory>
                     <destName>something_en.properties</destName>
              </file>
       </files>
</assembly>

Unfortunately, it seems that does not support wildcard *. I wish I could do smt like src/main/resources/*.properties${source}-suffix — CuongHuyTo, Feb 02 '15 at 09:24
Use , etc in the assembly descriptor if you need wildcards. See http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly.html — Ed Randall, Jan 09 '21 at 10:07

score 19 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 03 '15 at 10:04

I had the same problem using the copy-rename-maven-plugin solved my problem

    <project>
  ...
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>com.coderplus.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>copy-rename-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>1.0</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>copy-file</id>
            <phase>generate-sources</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>copy</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
              <sourceFile>src/someDirectory/test.environment.properties</sourceFile>
              <destinationFile>target/someDir/environment.properties</destinationFile>
            </configuration>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

I use the copy goal to solve my use case @coderplus does a rename — P-A, Jan 09 '17 at 12:16

score 17 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 24 '18 at 14:58

17

I see 2 options to solve your problem:

Use the Maven-Ant-Plugin, and define an Ant rename task that will rename your file only at the packaging phase, in the build directory.
Use this dedicated Maven plugin (I didn't test it): http://code.google.com/p/maven-file-rename-plugin/

edited Jan 24 '18 at 14:58

peterh

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answered Oct 22 '10 at 16:16

Benoit Courtine

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I went with the antrun plugin, with one execution in prepare-package phase to create the renamed `.DS_Store`, and another in verify phase to delete it (just in case...). Looks like it's working, thanks! – wmorrell Oct 22 '10 at 17:16

score 14 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 25 '10 at 21:32

14

You can avoid the over head of Ant by using the Maven Assembly plugin and the file assembly descriptor.

answered Oct 25 '10 at 21:32

jgifford25

2,164
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Not supported by filesets. So you can't apply a pattern to it :( – BeepDog Sep 01 '11 at 16:34
File renaming can be accomplished with dependencySets in the assembly plugin. – mojoken Jun 04 '14 at 22:50
10

could you provide an example? There's a lot of documentation there! – JonnyRaa Jun 13 '14 at 15:58
@BeepDog: Documentation http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly.html#class_file says and help renaming file, which is not supported by . See the post by RobE for example how to use and – CuongHuyTo Feb 02 '15 at 09:21
5

Answers that just contain links are not considered good answers: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8231/are-answers-that-just-contain-links-elsewhere-really-good-answers – Marco Aug 20 '15 at 12:57

Renaming resources in Maven

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