It is possible to get rid of the interactivity of the archetype plugin by setting the interactive property to false or by using the -B flag. A couple of meaningful properties are then required.
The archetypeGroupId, archetypeArtifactId and archetypeVersion defines the archetype to use for project generation.
The groupId, artifactId, version and package are the main properties to be set. Each archetype require these properties. Some archetypes defines other properties; refers to the appropriate archetype documentation if needed.
$ mvn archetype:generate -B -DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.maven.archetypes -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart -DarchetypeVersion=1.0 -DgroupId=com.company -DartifactId=project -Dversion=1.0 -Dpackage=1.5 [INFO] Scanning for projects... [INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'archetype'. [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Building Maven Default Project [INFO] task-segment: [archetype:generate] (aggregator-style) [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Preparing archetype:generate [INFO] No goals needed for project - skipping [INFO] Setting property: classpath.resource.loader.class => 'org.codehaus.plexus.velocity.ContextClassLoaderResourceLoader'. [INFO] Setting property: velocimacro.messages.on => 'false'. [INFO] Setting property: resource.loader => 'classpath'. [INFO] Setting property: resource.manager.logwhenfound => 'false'. [INFO] [archetype:generate] [INFO] Generating project in Batch mode [INFO] Archetype repository missing. Using the one from [org.apache.maven.archetypes:maven-archetype-quickstart:RELEASE] found in catalog internal [INFO] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [INFO] Using following parameters for creating OldArchetype: maven-archetype-quickstart:1.0 [INFO] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [INFO] Parameter: groupId, Value: com.company [INFO] Parameter: packageName, Value: 1.5 [INFO] Parameter: package, Value: 1.5 [INFO] Parameter: artifactId, Value: project [INFO] Parameter: basedir, Value: /private/tmp/archetype [INFO] Parameter: version, Value: 1.0 [INFO] OldArchetype created in dir: /private/tmp/archetype/project [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] Total time: 2 seconds [INFO] Finished at: Tue Sep 09 18:59:24 CEST 2008 [INFO] Final Memory: 8M/15M [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------