Spaces in Pathnames

Maven, like many cross-platform tools, can encounter problems when there are space characters in important pathnames. The instructions below will remind you of this for several particular items.

Prerequisites

Maven is written in Java (and primarily used to build Java programs). Thus, the major prerequisite is the Java SDK. You need to install the Java SDK (e.g. from Oracle's download site), and you should install it to a pathname without spaces, such as c:\j2se1.6.

Once Java is installed, you must ensure that the commands from the Java SDK are in your PATH environment variable. Running, for example,

java -version

must show the right version number.

Maven Unpacked

You need to unpack the Maven distribution. Don't unpack it in the middle of your source code; pick some location (with no spaces in the path!) and unpack it there. Let's assume that the path is ${maven.home}.

Maven in PATH

You run Maven by invoking a command-line tool: mvn.cmd from the bin directory of the Maven. To do this conveniently, ${maven.home}\bin must be in your PATH, just like the Java SDK commands. You can add directories to your PATH in the control panel; the details vary by Windows version.

Firewalls and Anti-virus

Firewall and Anti-virus sometimes prevent Java from running properly, or Windows Firewall (and various other Firewalls) actively prevent Java.exe from reaching out to the Internet to "download stuff" which is a key part of Maven You may need to configure the Firewall or Anti-virus to add exceptions to allow such actions.