[How To] Install Apache Maven in Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X

The Apache Maven is build tool used in Java projects for build automation. Based on the concept of a project object model (POM), Maven can manage a project's build, reporting and documentation from a central piece of information

This post will explain steps to install Apache Maven & setup Apache Maven environment variables in Linux, Solaris & Mac OS X operating systems.

Steps to Install & Setup Apache Maven on Linux (distributions like RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora) , Solaris & Mac OS X

Step 1. Download the Apache Maven binary

Navigate to /tmp partition & download Apache Maven binary present in various format binart in zip / tar.gz / from official Apache Maven website here :

cd /opt
wget http://mirror.olnevhost.net/pub/apache/maven/maven-3/3.0.5/binaries/apache-maven-3.0.5-bin.tar.gz

Step 2. Extract the downloaded Apache Maven archive

Extract the download archive and copy it into /opt partition on the server:

tar -xzvf apache-maven-3.0.5-bin.tar.gz
mv apache-maven-3.0.5/ /opt/ -aR

Step 3. Get the Apache Maven installation path

Go to the Apache maven directory:

cd apache-maven-3.0.5

Get current working directory using below command:

pwd

Output:

/opt/apache-maven-3.0.5

Step 4. Setup Apache Maven environment variables

Copy the output path as in step 3 which is value of the M2_HOME as below:

export M2_HOME=/opt/apache-maven-3.0.5
export PATH=${M2_HOME}/bin:${PATH}

To set the Apache Maven environment variables only for current terminal, set the Apache Maven installation directory variable M2_HOME using export. Post that, set Apache Maven bin folder path into PATH variable.

To set the Apache Maven environment variables on server boot for all the users permanently, update /etc/rc.local file with the above export entries.

To set the Apache Maven environment only for specific user permanently, update respective user's .bash_profile file with the above export entries.

Verify by checking the variable value using below command:

echo $M2_HOME
echo $PATH

Step 5. Verify Apache Maven environment variable setup

Verify by running any Apache maven command  to show version from terminal using below command:

mvn --version

Output:

Apache Maven 3.0.5 (r01de14724cdef164cd33c7c8c2fe155faf9602da; 2013-02-19 19:21:28+0530)
Maven home: /opt/apache-maven-3.0.5

Hope this helps! 🙂