How can I download a specific Maven artifact in one command line?

Question

You could use the maven dependency plugin which has a nice dependency:get goal since version 2.1. No need for a pom, everything happens on the command line.

To make sure to find the dependency:get goal, you need to explicitly tell maven to use the version 2.1, i.e. you need to use the fully qualified name of the plugin, including the version:

mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:2.1:get \
    -DrepoUrl=url \
    -Dartifact=groupId:artifactId:version

UPDATE: With older versions of Maven (prior to 2.1), it is possible to run dependency:get normally (without using the fully qualified name and version) by forcing your copy of maven to use a given version of a plugin.

This can be done as follows:

1. Add the following line within the <settings> element of your ~/.m2/settings.xml file:

<usePluginRegistry>true</usePluginRegistry>

2. Add the file ~/.m2/plugin-registry.xml with the following contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<pluginRegistry xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/PLUGIN_REGISTRY/1.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/plugin-registry-1.0.0.xsd"
xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/PLUGIN_REGISTRY/1.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
      <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
      <useVersion>2.1</useVersion>
      <rejectedVersions/>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</pluginRegistry>

But this doesn't seem to work anymore with maven 2.1/2.2. Actually, according to the Introduction to the Plugin Registry, features of the plugin-registry.xml have been redesigned (for portability) and the plugin registry is currently in a semi-dormant state within Maven 2. So I think we have to use the long name for now (when using the plugin without a pom, which is the idea behind dependency:get).

With the latest version (2.8) of the Maven Dependency Plugin, downloading an artifact from the Maven Central Repository is as simple as:

mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:2.8:get -Dartifact=groupId:artifactId:version[:packaging[:classifier]]

where groupId:artifactId:version, etc. are the Maven coordinates

An example, tested with Maven 2.0.9, Maven 2.2.1, and Maven 3.0.4:

mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:2.8:get -Dartifact=org.hibernate:hibernate-entitymanager:3.4.0.GA:jar:sources

(Thanks to Pascal Thivent for providing his wonderful answer in the first place. I am adding another answer, because it wouldn't fit in a comment and it would be too extensive for an edit.)

Here's what worked for me to download the latest version of an artifact called "component.jar" with Maven 3.1.1 in the end (other suggestions did not, mostly due to maven version changes I believe)

This actually downloads the file and copies it into the local working directory

From bash:

mvn dependency:get \
    -DrepoUrl=http://.../ \
        -Dartifact=com.foo.something:component:LATEST:jar \
        -Dtransitive=false \
        -Ddest=component.jar \

Regarding how to get the artifact binary, Pascal Thivent's answer is it, but to also get the artifact sources jar, we can use:

mvn dependency:get -Dartifact=groupId:artifactId:version:jar:sources

e.g.

mvn dependency:get -Dartifact=junit:junit:4.12:jar:sources

This works because the artifact parameter actually consists of groupId:artifactId:version[:packaging][:classifier]. Just the packaging and classifier are optional.

With jar as packaging and sources as classifier, the maven dependency plugin understands we're asking for the sources jar, not the artifact jar.

Unfortunately for now sources jar files cannot be downloaded transitively, which does make sense, but ideally I do believe it can also respect the option downloadSources just like the maven eclipse plugin does.

One could use dependency:copy (http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-dependency-plugin/copy-mojo.html) which takes a list of artifacts defined in the plugin configuration section and copies them to a specified location, renaming them or stripping the version if desired. This goal can resolve the artifacts from remote repositories if they don't exist in either the local repository or the reactor.

Not all the properties of the plugin could be used in maven CLI. The properties which have "User Property:" property defined could be specified. In the below example I am downloading junit to my temp folder and stripping the vesion from the jar file.

mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:2.8:copy -Dartifact=junit:junit:4.11 -DoutputDirectory=/tmp -Dmdep.stripVersion=true

where artifact=junit:junit:4.11 is the maven coordinates. And you specify artifcat as groupId:artifactId:version[:packaging[:classifier]]

(Thanks to Pascal Thivent for providing his https://stackoverflow.com/a/18632876/2509415 in the first place. I am adding another answer)

one liner to download latest maven artifact without mvn:

curl -O -J -L  "https://repository.sonatype.org/service/local/artifact/maven/content?r=central-proxy&g=io.staticcdn.sdk&a=staticcdn-sdk-standalone-optimizer&e=zip&v=LATEST"