Creating an archive of all jars and source jars for a multi-module project

Question

I'm building a Maven project which has half a dozen modules.

I'm fine with importing it myself using either Maven or Ivy, but other teams would like to use those jars as well, but their practice is to commit the jars and source jars to version control.

I'd like to generate a zip/tar assembly of all modules and their sources which they can use however they like.

I've read Maven Assembly Plugin: Including Module Binaries but I'm shy of using it because:

1. The linked FAQ entry returns a 404;
2. I need to manually specify all modules.

Is there an alternative?

---

Update: I've tried using the built-in assembly descriptors

 mvn assembly:assembly -DprojectModulesOnly=true
 mvn assembly:assembly

and both failed with

[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD ERROR
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Failed to create assembly: Error creating assembly archive bin: You must set at least one file.

right after all the module builds have run.

Answer 1

I think you're on the right lines, the moduleSets options of the assembly plugin handles what you're after.

If you're looking for some useful documentation, the Module Selection section of the Maven book covers it quite thoroughly, including how to configure includes and excludes, handle binaries and sources, and exclude external dependencies.

Answer 2

I had this problem, for me, the solution was NOT put / at the beginning of your <fileset><directory>

If you do that will work on Windows, not on Unix/Linux!

<fileSet>
  <directory>src/main/</directory>
  <outputDirectory></outputDirectory>
  <includes>
    <include>VERSION</include>
  </includes>
</fileSet>

works whereas

<fileSet>
  <directory>/src/main/</directory>
  <outputDirectory></outputDirectory>
  <includes>
    <include>VERSION</include>
  </includes>
</fileSet>

causes

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-assembly-plugin:2.3:single (execution-pluggin-assembly) on project test3: Failed to create assembly: Error creating assembly archive assembly: You must set at least one file. -> [Help 1]