others-how to solve Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-plugin-plugin:3.2:descriptor error when trying to build a maven plugin?
1. Purpose
In this post, I will show you how to solve the following error when trying to build a maven plugin:
test-maven-plugin$ mvn package
[WARNING]
[WARNING] Some problems were encountered while building the effective settings
[WARNING] 'profiles.profile[nexus-public].repositories.repository.id' must be unique but found duplicate repository with id mvnrepository @ /Users/bswen/tech/maven/apache-maven-3.8.8-bw/conf/settings.xml
[WARNING] 'profiles.profile[nexus-public].repositories.repository.id' must be unique but found duplicate repository with id mvnrepository @ /Users/bswen/.m2/settings.xml
[WARNING]
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] -------------< com.bw.example:test-maven-plugin >-------------
[INFO] Building test-maven-plugin 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] from pom.xml
[INFO] ----------------------------[ maven-plugin ]----------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-resources-plugin:2.6:resources (default-resources) @ test-maven-plugin ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to copy filtered resources, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] Copying 0 resource
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:3.1:compile (default-compile) @ test-maven-plugin ---
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-plugin-plugin:3.2:descriptor (default-descriptor) @ test-maven-plugin ---
[WARNING] Using platform encoding (UTF-8 actually) to read mojo metadata, i.e. build is platform dependent!
[INFO] Applying mojo extractor for language: java
[INFO] Mojo extractor for language: java found 0 mojo descriptors.
[INFO] Applying mojo extractor for language: bsh
[INFO] Mojo extractor for language: bsh found 0 mojo descriptors.
[INFO] Applying mojo extractor for language: java-annotations
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 1.431 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2023-08-12T14:54:56+08:00
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-plugin-plugin:3.2:descriptor (default-descriptor) on project test-maven-plugin: Execution default-descriptor of goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-plugin-plugin:3.2:descriptor failed: 6479 -> [Help 1]
[ERROR]
[ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
[ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
[ERROR]
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/PluginExecutionException
The pom of the maven plugin:
<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/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.test</groupId>
<artifactId>test-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<packaging>maven-plugin</packaging>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>test-maven-plugin</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<properties>
<maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
<maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-plugin-api</artifactId>
<version>3.6.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugin-tools</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-plugin-annotations</artifactId>
<version>3.6.0</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-project</artifactId>
<version>2.2.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>3.8.1</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</project>
2. Solution
Add maven-plugin-plugin to build block of your pom:
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-plugin-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.4</version>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
So the final pom should be:
<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/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.test</groupId>
<artifactId>test-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<packaging>maven-plugin</packaging>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>test-maven-plugin</name>
<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
<properties>
<maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
<maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-plugin-api</artifactId>
<version>3.6.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugin-tools</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-plugin-annotations</artifactId>
<version>3.6.0</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-project</artifactId>
<version>2.2.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>3.8.1</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-plugin-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.4</version>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
Why we need maven-plugin-plugin to build the plugin?
Because the Maven Plugin Plugin is used to create a Maven plugin descriptor for any Mojo’s found in the source tree, to include in the JAR. It is also used to generate report files for the Mojos as well as the artifact metadata and generating a generic help goal.
We can not just use the normal jar packaging method to build the maven plugin, we should use the maven-plugin-plugin to build it.
3. Summary
In this post, I demonstrated how to solve the Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-plugin-plugin:3.2:descriptor error when trying to build a maven plugin. The key point is to use the right build plugin to build our maven plugin. That’s it, thanks for your reading.