In this article, we will learn and understand about Maven’s build lifecycle
1. Build lifecycle phases
Every build lifecycle is made up of phases and each build phases defines/represents different stage in the lifecycle
Also with every build phase, a goal is associated with it
We will list down various stages/phases of the build lifecycle
There are three built-in build lifecycles:
Build Lifecycle
Responsibilities
default
handles project deployment
clean
handles project cleaning
site
handles creation of project’s site documentation
1.1 default lifecycle
There are around 23 build phases for this default lifecycle, but we will list down only key build phases which we will encounter frequently in our day-to-day build activities
Build Phase
Responsibilities
validate
validates, if the project is correct and all necessary are available for next activity
compile
compiles the source code of the project
test
tests the compiled source code
package
packages the compiled source code, depending on the pom attribute <packaging> (default is JAR)
install
installs the package into local maven repository (this could be used as dependency for other projects in our local environment)
deploy
Deploys/copies the package into remote repository (sharing with other users/developers)
Execution of any of the build phase will result in execution of above build phases too (similar to implicit invocation)
For example, running maven command “mvn install” will execute or run all build phases like validate, compile, test, package and including install
Note: For complete lists of default build lifecycle refer here
1.2 clean lifecycle
In Maven when you run to build the project for deployment, then there is quite possibility that older version of project build exists in the “target” folder
To overcome this situation, we have to clean the project before making build for project deployment
Various build phases of the clean lifecycle listed below
For example, “mvn clean”
Build Phase
Responsibilities
pre-clean
executes process required, prior to cleaning
clean
removes older version of project build
post-clean
executes processes needed to finalize the project cleaning
1.3 site lifecycle
The site lifecycle used to create project’s site documentation
Build Phase
Responsibilities
pre-site
executes process required, prior to site generation
site
generates project’s site documentations
post-site
executes processes needed to finalize the site generation
site-deploy
deploys to specified web server (site doc generated above)
