X Ray

How EasyPack Maven plugin works

EasyPack uses the default build life cycle provided by Maven. No new phase is introduced, so any existing project that needs to use any of the provided packaging, only needs to change the value on that property. The difference with any standard packaging like jar and war, is that four goals are executed.

In phase pre-package three goals are executed:

• com.github.easypack:easypack-maven-plugin:libs: creates the project's jar and copies all dependecies.
• com.github.easypack:easypack-maven-plugin:scripts: creates the start scripts.
• com.github.easypack:easypack-maven-plugin:copy: copies any resource to the bin folder.

In phase package one of the following goal is executed:

• com.github.easypack:easypack-maven-plugin:tar: creates the final tar.
• com.github.easypack:easypack-maven-plugin:zip: creates the final zip.
• com.github.easypack:easypack-maven-plugin:targz: creates the final tar.gz.

###The project's jar

When packaging with EasyPack, a jar with the project sources is created and used in the start script. This jar, like the dependencies, is put in the lib folder. The main class and all dependencies are configured in the jar's MANIFEST.MF file. As this jar is not the project's final artifact, it won't be deployed in the Maven repository.

###The start script

The start script, for any platform, can be executed from any path, as it performs a 'cd' operation to position in the application root folder. Any relative access to the file system, from the application, will be at this path.