Maven – Always download sources and javadocs

Question

Is there a way I can configure maven to always download sources and javadocs? Specifying -DdownloadSources=true -DdownloadJavadocs=true everytime (which usually goes along with running mvn compile twice because I forgot the first time) becomes rather tedious.

Is this for the eclipse plugin? You shouldn't have to run that very often anyway... — sjr, Apr 25 '11 at 17:04
No, it is for the command line program. I don't have to run it very often, but it would be great if I had to run it never! — schmmd, Apr 25 '11 at 17:22
What is the command line? This is when you do `mvn eclipse:eclipse` right? — sjr, Apr 25 '11 at 17:44
@sjr, yes in order to download sources and javadocs one can execute `mvn eclipse:eclipse -DdownloadSources=true -DdownloadJavadocs=true` — Yuriy Nakonechnyy, May 16 '13 at 17:30
I think this question still is **not** answered. The accepted answer is related to Eclipse plugin only. @AlexisGamarra's answer is the closest but does not solve the "persistence" of the solution - it does not set Maven to do it *always* whenever you run *mvn install*. — Honza Zidek, Dec 14 '17 at 10:20

score 271 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 15 '22 at 18:19

271

Open your settings.xml file ~/.m2/settings.xml (create it if it doesn't exist). Add a section with the properties added. Then make sure the activeProfiles includes the new profile.

<settings>

   <!-- ... other settings here ... -->

    <profiles>
        <profile>
            <id>downloadSources</id>
            <properties>
                <downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
                <downloadJavadocs>true</downloadJavadocs>
            </properties>
        </profile>
    </profiles>

    <activeProfiles>
        <activeProfile>downloadSources</activeProfile>
    </activeProfiles>
</settings>

Edit: As mentioned by Jingguo Yao, this works with Eclipse IDE only - the same can also be configured in your IDE of choice. In Elcipse via Window -> Preferences -> Maven menu, though this probably has to done at every workspace level and for fresh Eclipse installations.

Alternatively configure the maven-dependency-plugin in your pom.xml in a separate profile and run it as required - keeping it in the main build will lead to build times (needlessly elongating (not to mention space) at places like your build nodes that don't need either sources or java docs. Preferable this should configured in some org or division parent pom.xml, otherwise it has be repeated everywhere in different places

edited Sep 15 '22 at 18:19

Deepak

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answered Apr 25 '11 at 19:04

xecaps12

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I'm trying these profile properties in Maven 2.2.1 and 3.0.2 and they don't work. The target repository is Archiva. Any suggestions on what else can be tried? I've also tried using dependency:sources goal. Thanks – jmend Sep 03 '12 at 19:28
21

Moreover, in Eclipse you can just go to Preferences -> Maven (No subcategory). There, you can check "Download artifact Sources/JavaDocs". However, sometimes Eclipse doesn't want to create that file manually (happened to me in Luna). In that case - go there, paste this answer wrapped in settings tags and tell Eclipse to re-load it, and it should work. – Andrei Bârsan Apr 08 '14 at 13:28
9

This worked for me: in Eclipse go to Preferences -> Maven (No subcategory). Check - "Download artifact Source" - "Download artifact JavaDocs" - "Update Maven projects on startup" (just because I can't find the manual way) Then restart Eclipse. Done – Dirk May 03 '14 at 22:41
In Eclipse, in the Maven depencies you can right-click the jar and you have access to a menu : download Sources, JavaDoc, ... So you can do it on a need basis. – Rudy Vissers Jun 19 '15 at 13:22
7

This only effects Maven Eclipse plugin. – Jingguo Yao Jan 14 '16 at 07:32
Eclipse Mars; right-click on a maven project, on menu go to 'Maven' -> 'Download JavaDoc'. Your project will get rebuilt. cheers – Clocker Jul 15 '16 at 02:42
12

This should **not** be the accepted answer! As @JingguoYao stated, it only affects the Maven Eclipse plugin. The original question was not bound to Eclipse, but rather to the Maven itself. – Honza Zidek Dec 14 '17 at 10:10
1

Is it possible to do it at project level ? – Mehdi Oct 25 '19 at 15:23

score 219 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 16 '15 at 11:34

219

In my case the "settings.xml" solution didn't work so I use this command in order to download all the sources:

mvn dependency:sources

You also can use it with other maven commands, for example:

mvn clean install dependency:sources -Dmaven.test.skip=true

To download all documentation, use the following command:

mvn dependency:resolve -Dclassifier=javadoc

edited Dec 16 '15 at 11:34

OrangeDog

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answered Aug 31 '14 at 04:32

Alexis Gamarra

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I think this question still is **not** answered. The accepted answer is related to Eclipse plugin only. Your answer is the closest but does not solve the "persistence" of the solution - it does not set Maven to do it *always* whenever you run *mvn install*. – Honza Zidek Dec 14 '17 at 10:20

score 57 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 06 '18 at 12:17

57

Just consolidating and prepared the single command to address source and docs download...

mvn dependency:sources dependency:resolve -Dclassifier=javadoc

edited Aug 06 '18 at 12:17

Raja Anbazhagan

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answered May 26 '16 at 13:34

Venkateswara Rao

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Ghandhikus · Answer 4 · 2020-12-22T16:16:42.597

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Answer for people from Google

In Eclipse you can manually download javadoc and sources.

To do that, right click on the project and use

Maven -> Download JavaDoc
Maven -> Download Sources

edited Dec 22 '20 at 16:16

answered Feb 26 '16 at 18:08

Ghandhikus

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And in IDEA you can right click the Module, and under the Maven menu, there's an option to download sources and/or documentation – forresthopkinsa May 24 '17 at 19:41
@Betlista read first line of the post. Lots of people go from google to here looking for something else. But end up going in here, even with different keywords – Ghandhikus Dec 28 '18 at 20:55

score 16 · Answer 5 · answered May 08 '15 at 13:20

I am using Maven 3.3.3 and cannot get the default profile to work in a user or global settings.xml file.

As a workaround, you may also add an additional build plugin to your pom.xml file.

<properties>
    <maven-dependency-plugin.version>2.10</maven-dependency-plugin.version>
</properties>
<build>
    <plugins>
        <!-- Download Java source JARs. -->
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>${maven-dependency-plugin.version}</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>sources</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

score 10 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 02 '16 at 03:27

10

On NetBeans : open your project explorer->Dependencies->[file.jar] rightclick->Download Javadoc

answered Jul 02 '16 at 03:27

Ahmad Muzakki

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score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 22 '15 at 08:46

4

As @xecaps12 said, the simplest/efficient approach is to change your Maven settings file (~/.m2/settings.xml) but if it is a default settings for you, you can also set it like that

<profile>
  <id>downloadSources</id>
  <activation>
    <activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
  </activation>
  <properties>
      <downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
      <downloadJavadocs>true</downloadJavadocs>
  </properties>
</profile>

answered Apr 22 '15 at 08:46

Kraiss

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This doesn't actually work, you're just declaring unused global properties. I believe the mythical solution came from the `maven-eclipse-plugin`: http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-eclipse-plugin/examples/attach-library-sources.html – inanutshellus Sep 07 '16 at 16:29
Nope, its just a simplification of the "resolved" answer ;) – Kraiss Sep 08 '16 at 08:38
1

The "resolved" version doesn't work either. (I made the same comment there, too, but have removed it temporarily while I confer with you.) So - are you saying your answer (and thus the resolved answer) actually works for you?? I mean, 159 people uploaded that wrong-or-outdated answer, so clearly it works for someone. If it works as you say, then I'm doing something wrong, as are the several people on the resolved answer in its comments and I'd *love* to learn that and get that working. – inanutshellus Sep 08 '16 at 16:28
I suppose those global var are checked by eclipse plugin when you are actually developing with eclise. the source fetching is done by eclipse and not by maven on command line. – Jonatan Cloutier Nov 29 '16 at 14:44

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 29 '19 at 15:14

In Netbeans, you can instruct Maven to check javadoc on every project open :

Close and reopen Netbeans and you will see Maven download javadocs in the status bar.

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 12 '20 at 13:34

To follow up on the answer from kevinarpe this does both sources and Javadocs:

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.1.1</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>sources</goal>
                            <goal>resolve</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
                <configuration>
                    <classifier>javadoc</classifier>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Mar 25 '19 at 07:09

Simply modify file mvn (or mvn.cmd if in windows) and add whatever command line switches you need (as mentioned by other answers). If you don't want to modify the install files (which I'd recommend), create a mymvn (or mymvn.cmd) wrapper that invokes the regular mvn with the parameters.

Sasha O · Answer 11 · 2014-01-12T15:52:39.790

1

I think it can be done per plugin. See this chapter from the Maven book.

You might be able to configure the dependency plugin to download sources (even though I haven't tried it myself :-).

edited Jan 12 '14 at 15:52

answered Apr 25 '11 at 19:02

Sasha O

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Apr 25 '11 at 19:06

0

Not sure, but you should be able to do something by setting a default active profile in your settings.xml

See

See http://maven.apache.org/guides/introduction/introduction-to-profiles.html

answered Apr 25 '11 at 19:06

pgbsl

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Ah! Just exactly as described by @xecaps12 – pgbsl Apr 25 '11 at 19:07
10

You should really copy the relevant parts from the link into your answer, just in case the URL breaks. – Duncan Jones Jan 21 '13 at 08:08

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Sep 10 '19 at 15:36

I had to use KeyStore to Download the Jars. If you have any Certificate related issues you can use this approach:

mvn clean install dependency:sources -Dmaven.test.skip=true -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore="Path_To_Your_KeyStore"

If you want to know how to create KeyStores, this is a very good link: Problems using Maven and SSL behind proxy

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Oct 25 '19 at 15:38

0

For the sources on dependency level ( pom.xml) you can add :

<classifier>sources</classifier>

answered Oct 25 '19 at 15:38

Mehdi

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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Jun 12 '21 at 01:30

0

For intellij users, inside the pom.xml file, right click anywhere and select Maven -> Download sources and Documentation.

answered Jun 12 '21 at 01:30

GilbertS

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Maven – Always download sources and javadocs

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