= How to package software built with Maven in Debian =

== maven-debian-helper ==

The answer is [[DebianPkg:maven-debian-helper]]. This tool must always be added to Build-Depends in ''debian/control'' when you want to package a pure Maven-based project. 

The most important Debian specific packaging files are:
 * ''maven.properties'': It's the file to disable tests or override specific values in your pom.xml file.
 * ''maven.rules''; It's able to override Maven coordinates in pom.xml and point to Debian's local /usr/share/maven-repo. Downloading build-dependencies from the internet at build-time is forbidden. This is enforced by maven-debian-helper. You must package all build-dependencies for Debian and then you can use your system libraries to build the package.
 * ''maven.ignoreRules'': Helps to ignore certain artifacts, either because they are not needed (test dependencies) or because they are not available in Debian yet. 
 * and the ''debian/$PACKAGE.poms'' file: Sometimes you only need one Maven submodule. The poms file can ignore certain submodules, install artifacts also into /usr/share/java (which is useful for Ant projects), rename artifacts or ignore parent pom files. 

More information and how they function are available at [[https://wiki.debian.org/Java/MavenRepoHelper]]. See also the [[https://wiki.debian.org/Java/Packaging/Maven | Maven examples]]