How to timestamp an output artifact in Maven?

Question

I am trying to find out if Maven has some built-in plug-in that can be used to time-stamp artifacts. I created an assembly file and am using the maven-assembly plugin to create a final distribution (jars,docs,scripts, etc). I want to name this distribution file as domain_year_month_day.zip. How can I append the day portion of a timestamp to the end of the final zip file that is being produced. Thanks.

Answer 1

You could use the maven-timestamp-plugin to set a property (e.g. timestamp) and use it later in the final name of your assembly.

<plugin>
   <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
   <executions>
       <execution>
           <id>create-assembly</id>
           <phase>package</phase>
           <goals>
               <goal>single</goal>
           </goals>
           <configuration>
               <appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
               <finalName>domain_${timestamp}</finalName>
               <descriptors>
                   <descriptor>src/main/assembly/my-descriptor.xml</descriptor>
               </descriptors>
               <attach>true</attach>
           </configuration>
       </execution>
   </executions>
</plugin>

As an alternative, you could put some Groovy code in your POM using the GMaven plugin:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.gmaven</groupId>
  <artifactId>gmaven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>1.3</version>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <id>set-custom-property</id>
      <phase>initialize</phase>
      <goals>
        <goal>execute</goal>
      </goals>
      <configuration>
        <source>
          def timestamp = new Date().format('MM_dd_yy')
          project.properties.setProperty('timestamp', timestamp)
        </source>
      </configuration>
    </execution>
    <execution><!-- for demonstration purpose -->
      <id>show-custom-property</id>
      <phase>generate-resources</phase>
      <goals>
        <goal>execute</goal>
      </goals>
      <configuration>
        <source>
          println project.properties['timestamp']
        </source>
      </configuration>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>

A sample output showing the property:

$ mvn generate-resources 
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]                                                                         
...
[INFO] --- gmaven-plugin:1.3:execute (set-custom-property) @ Q4081274 ---
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- gmaven-plugin:1.3:execute (show-custom-property) @ Q4081274 ---
11_02_10
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
...

And again, use this property later in the build name of your assembly.

Answer 2

You don't need the maven-timestamp-plugin with newer versions of maven. Since 2.1'ish, Maven has provide the special property maven.build.timestamp.

You set the format in the pom properties with something like this:

<maven.build.timestamp.format>yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH.mm.ss</maven.build.timestamp.format>

And then use ${maven.build.timestamp} wherever you need a timestamp property. See http://maven.apache.org/guides/introduction/introduction-to-the-pom.html for details.

Answer 3

As ${maven.build.timestamp} seems buggy in maven, the workaround is as follows:

Create a new variable (I chose "build.timestamp", here) - and, optionally, specify the format :

pom.xml

<project>
    ...
    <properties>
        ...
        <build.timestamp>${maven.build.timestamp}</build.timestamp>
        <maven.build.timestamp.format>yyyyMMdd</maven.build.timestamp.format> 
                     <!-- default is: yyyyMMdd-HHmm -->
    </properties>
    <build>
    ...
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <descriptors>
                    <descriptor>some-assembly.xml</descriptor>
                </descriptors>
            </configuration>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>make</id>
                    <phase>package</phase>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>assembly</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>

...

Use the custom variable from anywhere:

some-assembly.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.0.xsd">
    <id>release-${build.timestamp}</id>
    <baseDirectory>/</baseDirectory>
    <includeBaseDirectory>false</includeBaseDirectory>
    <formats>
      <format>zip</format>
    </formats>
    <fileSets>
      <fileSet>
        <directory>${project.build.directory}/${project.artifactId}-${project.version}</directory>
      </fileSet>
    </fileSets>
</assembly>

Answer 4

if you use Hudson/Jenkins you can just use the variable ${BUILD_ID} for getting sort of timestamp to any properties file u want to edit.

information to the other environment variables Hudson/Jenkins supports, take a look here: http://wiki.hudson-ci.org/display/HUDSON/Building+a+software+project