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>