xcopy a maven .m2\repository\* folder to another computer?

Question

I'm using eclipse 3.7 and my local maven repository has a bunch of jars in it. I tried to build the project on another computer that is on a different network and has *.jar download restrictions. I will not be able to get the restrictions lifted. Here is an example error:

e.g. Access denied to http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-compiler-plugin/2.3.2/maven-compiler-plugin-2.3.2.jar Error code 403, Forbidden (Content blocked ...)

It would be very nice if I could simply copy my .m2\repository\ folder into the .m2\repository\ on the other computer--both are running windows. I really don't want to manually install 100s of jars on the other computer.

Is xcopy for .m2\repository\ supported?

Answer 1

Yes, you can copy the .m2/repository folder to any other location/storage device you want.

Maven only needs to know the path to the local repository (by default it's in %USER_HOME%/.m2/repository). You can change that path in Maven's settings.xml (see settings reference) if you decide to keep the artifacts in a different location.