Run mvn exec:exec without a pom.xml

Question

I am trying to find a way just to fetch a library from maven repository and run it. I want to define everything by command line and ignore the pom. I am trying following:

 mvn exec:exec -Dexec.mainClass="org.main.Class" -Dspring.profiles.active=test

When I try to run it with pom.xml, it starts to fetch all the dependencies described in the pom. Which I really don't want. When I run it without the pom.xml, it says Goal requires a project to execute but there is no POM in this directory. Please verify you invoked Maven from the correct directory. Is there a way to run it without the pom or at least ignore it?

My goal is just to start my application from anywhere without sources or jars.

Answer 1

One possible workaround would be to:

• first get the jar
• then execute it

For that, the maven plugin dependency:get is handy, and can be executed without any pom.xml/project (so from any folder you want)

mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:2.1:get -DrepoUrl=https://dtp.intramundi.com/nexus/repository/maven-central/ -Dartifact=<group>:<artifact>:<version>

Once you have copied the artifact to the folder of your choice, a plugin like dependency:copy-dependencies could, reading the pom.xml of the artifact you just got, copy said dependencies to the same folder of your choice.

Finally, a java -cp . yourArtifact.jar can execute it.

I realize this is not as straightforward as just "exec:exec", and that it fetches dependencies from the pom.xml, but here at least:

• the first step does not require any pom.xml,
• the second step needs the pom.xml of the very artifact you want to execute, and those dependencies might be needed at runtime: you would need those anyway if you want to 'exec' your artifact.