run main class of Maven project

Question

I've created a simple console Java application that is built with Maven. Is there a way that the main class (which doesn't require any arguments) can be run from the command-line using a maven command like:

mvn run-app com.example.MainClass

Answer 1

Try the maven-exec-plugin. From there:

mvn exec:java -Dexec.mainClass="com.example.Main"

This will run your class in the JVM. You can use -Dexec.args="arg0 arg1" to pass arguments.

If you're on Windows, apply quotes for exec.mainClass and exec.args:

mvn exec:java -D"exec.mainClass"="com.example.Main"

If you're doing this regularly, you can add the parameters into the pom.xml as well:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
  <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>1.2.1</version>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <goals>
        <goal>java</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
  <configuration>
    <mainClass>com.example.Main</mainClass>
    <arguments>
      <argument>foo</argument>
      <argument>bar</argument>
    </arguments>
  </configuration>
</plugin>