Creating a zip archive of the maven "target" directory

Question

I wish to create a zip archive of my "target" directory (${project.build.directory). using the maven-assembly-plugin seems to me like overkill for such a simple task (and a bit complicated - why must I use another file, the assembly descriptor, for such a task) I can't locate the seemingly more simple maven-zip-plugin in the http://repo1.maven.org/maven2 repository.

Any input?

Answer 1

If the bin predefined assembly descriptor doesn't suit your needs, then you have three options:

1. Using the maven-assembly-plugin - The maven-zip-plugin never came out because the assembly plugin can do everything the zip plugin was doing, and more, see MNG-2243.
2. Using the maven-antrun-plugin (and maybe the build-helper-plugin to attach the zip) - There is an example here (and this looks more verbose than the assembly plugin at the end).
3. Writing your own plugin - why would you do this when you have the assembly plugin.

Personally, I would just use the maven-assembly-plugin with the following zip.xml descriptor:

<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.0.xsd">
  <id>bin</id>
  <baseDirectory>/</baseDirectory>
  <formats>
    <format>zip</format>
  </formats>
  <fileSets>
    <fileSet>
      <directory>${project.build.directory}</directory>
    </fileSet>
  </fileSets>
</assembly>

And in your POM:

<plugin>
  <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>2.6</version>
  <configuration>
    <descriptors>
      <descriptor>src/main/assembly/zip.xml</descriptor>
    </descriptors>
  </configuration>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <id>make-assembly</id> <!-- this is used for inheritance merges -->
      <phase>package</phase> <!-- append to the packaging phase. -->
      <goals>
        <goal>single</goal> <!-- goals == mojos -->
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>