Maven

From the Maven Home page on Apache:

"Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool. 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."

Not sure why so many of these tools go out of their way to be so ambiguous about what the tool specifically does, but...

Basically, Maven is a standard way to build a java based project.

It provides a clear definition of what makes up a project.

It also publishes the project information.

It shares JARs across several projects.

Maven Home

• Simplifying the build process
• Provide uniform builds
• Improved project information and reporting
• Easy to follow best practices
• Easy upgrade path

• Build Automation
• Providing Build Best Practices
• Provide Relevant Project Information
• Enforces Technical Standards
• Scalability

This Jakarta project was created to simplify the build process of their Turbine project.

Most Jakarta projects were using their own ant build files and processes.

It can be used to build and deploy any java-based project.

System Requirements

JDK	1.4 or above (this is to execute Apache-Maven - it still allows you to build against 1.3 and prior JDK's)
Memory	No minimum requirement
Disk	No minimum requirement. Approximately 100MB will be used for your local repository, however this will vary depending on usage and can be removed and redownloaded at any time.
Operating System	No minimum requirement. On Windows, Windows NT and above or Cygwin is required for the startup scripts. Tested on Windows XP, Fedora Core and Mac OS X.

Planned Environment

O/S	Solaris 10
Server	Sun T2000 4 cores, 8 threads per core(32 concurrent threads)
RAM	32GB
JDK	1.6

Automated Builds

CruiseControl

Continuous Integration

Software Build

Software Build Best Practices

SCM Tools