I wish to exclude some class files from my jar. I am using maven-assembly-plugin. It still adds the files. I dont get any error - maven

Question

I dont get any error with this code. Just that the file that I want to exclude still gets added. I am using the maven plugin for eclipse
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>only</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>single</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<archive>
<manifest>
<mainClass>com.Main</mainClass>
</manifest>
</archive>
<descriptorRefs>
<descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
</descriptorRefs>
<excludes>
<exclude>**/com/uiservices/controllers/*.* </exclude>
</excludes>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>

Answer 1

The maven-assembly-plugin doesn't work like that.
There what you want to do is override the configuration of the assembly descriptor jar-with-dependencies and that's not possible.
If what you want to do is create a jar similar to the one created by the assembly jar-with-dependencies but without some specific classes of your own project, you have to write your own assembly and call it in the maven-assembly-plugin like what follows.
Assembly in src/assembly/jar-with-deps-with-exclude.xml :
<assembly
xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.3 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.3.xsd">
<!-- TODO: a jarjar format would be better -->
<id>jar-with-dependencies-and-exclude-classes</id>
<formats>
<format>jar</format>
</formats>
<includeBaseDirectory>false</includeBaseDirectory>
<dependencySets>
<dependencySet>
<outputDirectory>/</outputDirectory>
<useProjectArtifact>false</useProjectArtifact>
<unpack>true</unpack>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependencySet>
</dependencySets>
<fileSets>
<fileSet>
<outputDirectory>/</outputDirectory>
<directory>${project.build.outputDirectory}</directory>
<excludes>
<exclude>com/uiservices/controllers/*.*</exclude>
</excludes>
</fileSet>
</fileSets>
</assembly>
This will create an assembly with no the dependencies unpacked and with your classes added except the ones excluded.
And then in your pom.xml :
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>only</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>single</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<descriptors>
<descriptor>src/assembly/jar-with-deps-with-exclude.xml</descriptor>
</descriptors>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
But if what you need is your classical jar without excluded classes, you can exclude them in the maven-jar-plugin directly :
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<excludes>
<exclude>com/uiservices/controllers/*.*</exclude>
</excludes>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Answer 2

I had a similar issue with maven-assembly-plugin:
Project beans-conversion has files application.properties,
logback.xml, and logback.xsd
Project extract-conversion has also files called application.properties, logback.xml, and logback.xsd
Requirement is extract-conversion.jar should include beans-conversion.jar content but application.properties, logback.xml, and logback.xsd of extract-conversion.jar should override the beans-conversion.jar.
Solution:
We solved this using maven-shade-plugin as below in extract-conversion's pom.xml.
...
<dependency>
<groupId>com.mycompany</groupId>
<artifactId>beans-conversion</artifactId>
<version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>
...
<build>
<finalName>${project.artifactId}</finalName>
<resources>
<resource>
<directory>src/main/resources</directory>
<includes>
<include>application.properties</include>
<include>logback.xml</include>
<include>logback.xsd</include>
</includes>
<filtering>true</filtering>
</resource>
</resources>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.3</version>
<configuration>
<source>1.8</source>
<target>1.8</target>
<encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.4.3</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>shade</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<filters>
<filter>
<artifact>com.mycompany:beans-conversion</artifact>
<excludes>
<exclude>application.properties</exclude>
<exclude>logback.xml</exclude>
<exclude>logback.xsd</exclude>
</excludes>
</filter>
<filter>
<artifact>*:*</artifact>
<excludes>
<exclude>META-INF/*.SF</exclude>
<exclude>META-INF/*.DSA</exclude>
<exclude>META-INF/*.RSA</exclude>
</excludes>
</filter>
</filters>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>

Answer 3

using maven-shade-plugin
ref: Maven dependency: exclude one class
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.2.1</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>shade</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<finalName>${project.artifactId}-jar-with-dependencies</finalName>
<transformers>
<transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ManifestResourceTransformer">
<manifestEntries>
<Main-Class>com.taobao.arthas.core.Arthas</Main-Class>
</manifestEntries>
</transformer>
</transformers>
<filters>
<filter>
<artifact>*:termd-core</artifact>
<excludes>
<exclude>META-INF/services/io.termd.core.spi.ConfigProvider</exclude>
</excludes>
</filter>
</filters>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>