Maven settings.xml

External

• https://maven.apache.org/settings.html

Internal

• Maven

Overview

settings.xml is the place to store configuration that should not be bundled with a specific project, but it concerns the build system as a whole. This includes various "personal" configuration values, the location of the local repository, alternate remote repository servers and authentication information. Usually, this information is bundled in specific profiles.

There are two types of settings.xml files:

• global, placed in ${MAVEN_HOME}/conf/settings.xml.
• user settings, placed in ${HOME}/.m2/settings.xml. An alternate user settings file location can be specified with -s|--settings.

If both exist, the contents are merged and the user-specific values take precedence.

System properties and environment variables can be both used in settings.xml.

Note that properties defined in profiles within settings.xml cannot be dereferenced.

Elements

<localRepository>

The location of the local repository.

<localRepository>${user.home}/.m2/repository</localRepository>

<interactiveMode>

<interactiveMode>true</interactiveMode>

See Maven interactive mode.

<offline>

<offline>false</offline>

<servers>

https://maven.apache.org/settings.html#Servers

Declares a server.

<servers>
    <server>
        <id>server001</id>
        <username>my_login</username>
        <password>my_password|{encrypted_password=}</password>
        <privateKey>${user.home}/.ssh/id_dsa</privateKey> 
        <passphrase>some_passphrase</passphrase>
        <filePermissions>664</filePermissions>
        <directoryPermissions>775</directoryPermissions>
        <configuration>
           ...
        </configuration>
    </server>
</servers>

Advanced Configuration

Authenticating by Writing Headers

Attempts to authenticate against a HTTPS repository by specifying <username>/<password> in the <server> configuration did fail in Maven 3.5.2 because even if the configuration seemed correct, it did not result in Maven sending the corresponding "Authorization: " header on the wire, for causes yet unknown.

The workaround was to specify the "Authorization: " header explicitly, as follows:

 <servers>
   <server>
     <id>a-https-repository</id>
       <configuration>
         <httpHeaders>
           <property>
             <name>Authorization</name>
               <value>Basic b3ZpZGl1Om42XzRHUnk3NENT</value>
             </property>
           </httpHeaders>
        </configuration>
    </server>
 </servers>

The content of the "Authorization: " header can be obtained by executing:

curl -v -u <username>:<password> https://....

Also see:

Password-Protected Repositories

<profiles>

See:

Maven Profile

<activeProfiles>

See:

Maven Profile

<usePluginRegistry>

See plugin registry.

<mirrors>

Configures Maven repository mirrors.

Setting a mirror is useful when an OpenShift Nexus instance is available and it can be used to speed up the build. See:

Configure Maven to Use Nexus as Mirror

<proxies>

See proxy.