Tutorial

How to Install Maven on Mac OS

Published on August 3, 2022
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By Pankaj

How to Install Maven on Mac OS

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Install Maven on Mac

Maven is the most widely used build and project dependency management tool for Java-based applications. We can install Maven on Mac OS using a package manager such as HomeBrew or through XCode Command Line Tools. But, in this tutorial, we will learn how to install Maven on Mac OS without using any other software. Maven requires Java to execute. So we will have to first install Java and then maven into our Mac OS.

1. Installing Java on Mac

We will install OpenJDK in our Mac OS. It’s free and you don’t have to worry about licensing that comes with Oracle JDK build.

1.1) Downloading Java for Mac OS

Go to the latest JDK GA release page and download the tar file for Mac OS. Java 13 GA Release URL: https://jdk.java.net/13/ Then extract it to the directory of your choice. I prefer to keep my JDK setup at “/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/” directory.

$ tar -xvf openjdk-13.0.1_osx-x64_bin.tar.gz
$ sudo mv jdk-13.0.1.jdk /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/

Recommended Reading: Linux tar command to compress and extract files

1.2) Setting Environment Variables - JAVA_HOME and Path

Open .bash_profile and add the following entries at the end of it.

JAVA_HOME="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-13.0.1.jdk/Contents/Home"
PATH="${JAVA_HOME}/bin:${PATH}"
export PATH

You can relaunch the Terminal to apply these profile changes. Or you can also run source .bash_profile command to apply these environment variable changes. Recommended Reading: Linux Environment Variables

1.3) Verifying the JDK installation

Open the Terminal and run java -version command. It should show the following output.

$ java -version
openjdk version "13.0.1" 2019-10-15
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 13.0.1+9)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 13.0.1+9, mixed mode, sharing)
$

However, you might get an alert message with the following warning.

“jdk-13.0.1.jdk” cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified.
macOS cannot verify that this app is free from malware.
Jdk13 Macos Verify Error
Jdk13 Macos Verify Error

You will have to allow the app to execute from the “Security and Privacy” settings. Allow Apps Mac Security And Privacy After that, the java command will work fine and the alert message will not be shown.

2. Install Maven on Mac OS

Now that we have successfully installed JDK, we are ready to download and install Maven in Mac OS.

2.1) Download Maven for Mac OS

Go to the Maven Download site: https://maven.apache.org/download.cgi Download the “Binary tar.gz archive” file as shown in the below image.

Maven Binary Tar Archive
Maven Binary Tar Archive

After downloading, extract it using the below command.

$ tar -xvf apache-maven-3.6.3-bin.tar.gz

The binaries will be extracted in the “apache-maven-3.6.3” directory. You can keep them anywhere, I have kept it in the Downloads directory for the sake of easy access.

2.2) Setting Maven Environment Variables - M2_HOME and Path

The next step is to set up the environment variables - M2_HOME and Path. We have to add the Maven bin directory to the Path variable. Open .bash_profile in your favorite text editor and add below lines to the end of it.

export M2_HOME="/Users/pankaj/Downloads/apache-maven-3.6.3"
PATH="${M2_HOME}/bin:${PATH}"
export PATH

You can relaunch Terminal to load these profile settings or use source .bash_profile command to apply it.

2.3) Verifying the Maven Installation

Finally, run the mvn -version command to check if Maven is installed successfully.

$ mvn -version     
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM warning: Ignoring option MaxPermSize; support was removed in 8.0
Apache Maven 3.6.3 (cecedd343002696d0abb50b32b541b8a6ba2883f)
Maven home: /Users/pankaj/Downloads/apache-maven-3.6.3
Java version: 13.0.1, vendor: Oracle Corporation, runtime: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-13.0.1.jdk/Contents/Home
Default locale: en_IN, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: "mac os x", version: "10.15.1", arch: "x86_64", family: "mac"
$

The output shows maven home location, the JDK it’s using and also the Mac OS version details. Maven is successfully installed in your Mac OS. You are ready to create a maven based Java projects.

References

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JournalDev
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April 21, 2021

Hi I’ve tried every possible solution online to set a maven path on MacBookAir(Apple M1 chip), but nothing worked. I’ve downloaded maven and extracted but setting the path on a terminal is troubling me. I always get the message on the terminal “zsh: command not found: PATH” whenever I try to set the path. Can someone help me with this, please?

- Rajita

    JournalDev
    DigitalOcean Employee
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    March 10, 2021

    Hi, I am trying to install maven on my mac pc. I followed all your steps and getting this error “Error occurred during initialization of VM Incompatible minimum and maximum heap sizes specified” Please help to get me out from this error TIA

    - Mani Gupta

      JournalDev
      DigitalOcean Employee
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      December 16, 2020

      java -version command works for me. But mvn --version still says mv command not found I have following in bash_profile JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_77.jdk/Contents/Home export PATH JAVA_HOME J2=$JAVA_HOME/bin export PATH J2 M2_HOME=/Applications/apache-maven-3.4.5 export PATH M2_HOME M2=$M2_HOME/bin export PATH M2

      - Heena Jain

        JournalDev
        DigitalOcean Employee
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        October 12, 2020

        Thank you so much… The steps helped me

        - Ramesh

          JournalDev
          DigitalOcean Employee
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          September 28, 2020

          On new MacOS, Catalina for example, the .bash_profile has been renamed to .zprofile

          - Micael

            JournalDev
            DigitalOcean Employee
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            June 3, 2020

            manojkumar.panchal@LM0000941 ~ % mvn version [INFO] Scanning for projects… [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] BUILD FAILURE [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Total time: 0.069 s [INFO] Finished at: 2020-06-03T16:11:40+05:30 [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ERROR] The goal you specified requires a project to execute but there is no POM in this directory (/Users/manojkumar.panchal). Please verify you invoked Maven from the correct directory. -> [Help 1] [ERROR] [ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch. [ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging. [ERROR] [ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles: [ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MissingProjectException

            - manojpanchal50

              JournalDev
              DigitalOcean Employee
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              April 2, 2020

              Thanks Pankaj, Found this while trying to install with Homebrew wasn’t working for me. This was truly helpful

              - Vickie

                JournalDev
                DigitalOcean Employee
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                February 7, 2017

                thank you so much, I tried it and worked, after going frustrated with “how to fix Maven downloaded via Homebrew”

                - Xuan Trieu

                  JournalDev
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                  September 12, 2016

                  Hi, I tried the steps. When I do this it works for single session. i.e. Next time when I close and reopen terminal and do man -version I get: -sh: mvn: command not found How to fix this? Waiting for reply

                  - Jyoti

                    JournalDev
                    DigitalOcean Employee
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                    September 16, 2015

                    Error: Could not find or load main class org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher

                    - iliyaz

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