Apache Maven (Nexus Repository 2)

To use Nexus Repository Manager Pro and Nexus Repository Manager OSS with Apache Maven, configure Maven to check the repository manager instead of the default, built-in connection to the Central Repository.

To do this, you add a mirror configuration and override the default configuration for the central repository in your ~/.m2/settings.xml as shown:

Configuring Maven to Use a Single Repository Group

<settings>
  <mirrors>
    <mirror>
      <!--This sends everything else to /public -->
      <id>nexus</id>
      <mirrorOf>*</mirrorOf>
      <url>http://localhost:8081/nexus/content/groups/public</url>
    </mirror>
  </mirrors>
  <profiles>
    <profile>
      <id>nexus</id>
      <!--Enable snapshots for the built in central repo to direct -->
      <!--all requests to nexus via the mirror -->
      <repositories>
        <repository>
          <id>central</id>
          <url>http://central</url>
          <releases><enabled>true</enabled></releases>
          <snapshots><enabled>true</enabled></snapshots>
        </repository>
      </repositories>
     <pluginRepositories>
        <pluginRepository>
          <id>central</id>
          <url>http://central</url>
          <releases><enabled>true</enabled></releases>
          <snapshots><enabled>true</enabled></snapshots>
        </pluginRepository>
      </pluginRepositories>
    </profile>
  </profiles>
  <activeProfiles>
    <!--make the profile active all the time -->
    <activeProfile>nexus</activeProfile>
  </activeProfiles>
</settings>

In this example, a single profile called nexus is defined. It configures a repository and a pluginRepository with the id central that overrides the same repositories in the super pom. The super pom is internal to every Apache Maven install and establishes default values. These overrides are important since they change the repositories by enabling snapshots and replacing the URL with a bogus URL. This URL is overridden by the mirror setting in the same settings.xml file to point to the URL of your single repository group. This repository group can, therefore, contain release as well as snapshot components and Maven will pick them up.

The mirrorOf pattern of * causes any repository request to be redirected to this mirror and to your single repository group, which in the example is the public group.

It is possible to use other patterns in the mirrorOf field. A possible valuable setting is to use external:*. This matches all repositories except those using localhost or file based repositories. This is used in conjunction with a repository manager when you want to exclude redirecting repositories that are defined for integration testing. The integration test runs for Apache Maven itself require this setting.

More documentation about mirror settings can be found in the mini guide on the Maven web site.

As a last configuration the nexus profile is listed as an active profile in the activeProfiles element.