How create zip files with Maven

In some maven projects is important generate a  compressed file, for example to send by email.

So, in this post I will show you how you can generate compressed files using Maven.

In you pom.xml file you need incorporate the maven-assembly-plugin plugin, something like that:

	<plugin>
	<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
	<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
	<configuration>
	<descriptor>src/assembly/bin.xml</descriptor>
	<finalName>${plugin.name}</finalName>
	</configuration>
	<executions>
	<execution>
	<phase>package</phase>
	<goals>
	<goal>single</goal>
	</goals>
	</execution>
	</executions>
	</plugin>

view raw pom.xml hosted with ❤ by GitHub

So, as you can see, you need define a bin.xml file in src/assembly/ path, you can define the name and path that you want. Is only mandatory have a specific structure content. That you can see a example below:

	<assembly
	xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.0"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.0.xsd">
	<formats>
	<format>zip</format>
	<format>tar</format>
	<format>tar.gz</format>
	<format>tar.bz2</format>
	</formats>
	<includeBaseDirectory>false</includeBaseDirectory>
	<dependencySets>
	<dependencySet>
	<includes>
	<include>groupId.example:artifactId.example</include>
	</includes>
	<unpack>false</unpack>
	<scope>runtime</scope>
	<outputDirectory>${plugin.name}</outputDirectory>
	</dependencySet>
	</dependencySets>
	<fileSets>
	<fileSet>
	<directory>resources</directory>
	<outputDirectory>${plugin.name}</outputDirectory>
	<includes>
	<include>file-example.xml</include>
	<include>file-example.png</include>
	</includes>
	</fileSet>
	<fileSet>
	<directory>target</directory>
	<outputDirectory>${plugin.name}</outputDirectory>
	<includes>
	<include>build-*.jar</include>
	</includes>
	</fileSet>
	</fileSets>
	</assembly>

view raw bin.xml hosted with ❤ by GitHub

That example, permit create zip, tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2. If you want put all dependencies on the compress file, you don't need define includes tag.

More details about maven-assembly-plugin: http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin

I hope that information is useful for you. Feel free to comment this post.