Where is the settings.xml used by maven in the Spring Tool Suite?

Question

I'd like to set the ftp servers for deploying from STS as described here: http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-deploy-plugin/examples/deploy-ftp.html

It should be in the settings.xml. According to documentation settings is in either of 2:

• The Maven install: $M2_HOME/conf/settings.xml
• A user's install: ${user.home}/.m2/settings.xml

Where is the $M2_HOME. In other terms when working from STS(Eclipse), what is the installation folder for maven in this case. I can't find a settings.xml in ${user.home}/.m2/ . I worked under Windows 7

Those 2 threads are related but do not provide a clear answer that worked for me at least:

• maven doesnt seem to be installing with springsource tool suite
• Eclipse (STS) + Maven , I have nothing appearing in the screenshot suggested in this last thread.

Thx in advance

Answer 1

I may be off-mark as I've never used STS myself, but if I understand correctly it is just a pre-packaged Eclipse distribution. If I'm correct your installation only contains an embedded version of Maven, but not a command line accessible one. You need to install one from here.

With the 3.x releases of Eclipse I found that you need to have your installation point to an external Maven installation for Eclipse to make use of the settings.xml files. Once you installed a downloaded version you can choose Window -> Preferences -> Maven -> Installations, press Add... and point to the version you just installed.