Apache Quickstart not working: "The defined artifact is not an archetype" - maven

Question

I'm trying to get started with the basic Flink quickstart examples.
https://ci.apache.org/projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.2/quickstart/java_api_quickstart.html
I'm getting an error at the very first step with Maven. Regardless of whether I try to install using Maven or the "curl" command, I get the same error "The defined artifact is not an archetype":
Command:
mvn archetype:generate \
> -DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.flink \
> -DarchetypeArtifactId=flink-quickstart-java \
> -DarchetypeVersion=1.2.0
Response:
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Maven Stub Project (No POM) 1
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] >>> maven-archetype-plugin:3.0.1:generate (default-cli) > generate-sources # standalone-pom >>>
[INFO]
[INFO] <<< maven-archetype-plugin:3.0.1:generate (default-cli) < generate-sources # standalone-pom <<<
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-archetype-plugin:3.0.1:generate (default-cli) # standalone-pom ---
[INFO] Generating project in Interactive mode
[INFO] Archetype repository not defined. Using the one from [org.apache.flink:flink-quickstart-java:1.2.1] found in catalog remote
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 3.916 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2017-05-03T18:16:55+02:00
[INFO] Final Memory: 18M/280M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-archetype-plugin:3.0.1:generate (default-cli) on project standalone-pom: The defined artifact is not an archetype -> [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/MojoFailureException
I'm very confused as I was able to execute these quickstarts last week without problem, and I'm completely new to Maven/Flink so I'm having trouble pinpointing what could have changed since then. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Only defining the archetype is not enough. You also need to provide details for the current maven project itself.
Either you have to pass the 'groupId', 'artifactId' and 'version' in the interactive mode when you run the above mentioned command.
Or, you can use the following command mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.flink -DarchetypeArtifactId=flink-quickstart-java -DarchetypeVersion=1.2.0 -DgroupId=com.example -DartifactId=flink -Dversion=0.1

Answer 2

I have encountered with a similar error while I was trying to generate the "graphwalker" archetype using below command.
mvn archetype:generate -B \
-DarchetypeGroupId=org.graphwalker \
-DarchetypeArtifactId=graphwalker-maven-archetype \
-DgroupId=com.company -DartifactId=myProject \
-DarchetypeVersion=LATEST
However, my clue was I could generate it in the first time, but the second time it threw a similar error.
I was able to solve it by removing ./m2/repository and generating the archetype again.
rm -rf ./m2/repository