Packing one tar created using maven assembly into another tar using maven assembly - maven

Question

I have created a tar(say project.tar) using maven assembly descriptor.
I need to create one more tar(say final.tar) file which would contain the previously created tar (project.tar) along with one script file.
To do this 'm trying using two descriptors specified in pom.xml. One descriptor is for project.tar and second for final.tar .
While doing so I'm facing the following error.
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-assembly-plugin:2.4:single (default-cli) on project ede: Failed to create assembly: Error creating assembly archive bin: A tar file cannot include itself. -> [Help 1]
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-assembly-plugin:2.4:single (default-cli) on project ede: Failed to create assembly: Error creating assembly archive bin: A tar file cannot include itself. "
My pom.xml file is
...
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.4</version>
<goals>
<goal>single</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<descriptors>
<descriptor>assembly/src.xml</descriptor>
<descriptor>assembly/final.xml</descriptor>
</descriptors>
<appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
</configuration>
</plugin>
...
I've also tried using pom.xml file as
...
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.4</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>jar-with-dependencies</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>single</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<descriptors>
<descriptor>assembly/src.xml</descriptor>
</descriptors>
<appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>bin</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>single</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<descriptors>
<descriptor>assembly/final.xml</descriptor>
</descriptors>
<appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
<finalName>ede2</finalName>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
In this way, it's not able to locate the descriptors files.
Could anyone please guide me if 'm doing anything wrong?

Answer 1

I know that this post is very old but I think it might need some explanations.
In my opinion, the best way for what you want to do is to use two executions of the maven-assembly-plugin. The first will generate your project tar and the second you final tar. (please read all the answer before saying that there is more simple)
Here is what I would do (and it works of course).
As I like to have the assemblies in different folders (because I think it is easier like that), I declare properties in my pom with the directories paths :
<properties>
<myproperties.assembly.project-tar.dir>${project.build.directory}/assembly-project/</myproperties.assembly.project-tar.dir>
<myproperties.assembly.final-tar.dir>${project.build.directory}/assembly-final/</myproperties.assembly.final-tar.dir>
</properties>
Then in the maven-assembly-plugin I configure the executions (never forget that the order of the executions is very important because they will be executed in the declaration order if they are binded on the same phase) :
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.5.3</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>project-tar</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>single</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
<outputDirectory>${myproperties.assembly.project-tar.dir}</outputDirectory>
<descriptors>
<descriptor>src/assembly/project-tar.xml</descriptor>
</descriptors>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>final-tar</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>single</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<outputDirectory>${myproperties.assembly.final-tar.dir}</outputDirectory>
<descriptors>
<descriptor>src/assembly/final-tar.xml</descriptor>
</descriptors>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
(you can see that the tars will be in different folders and that the project tar will not have the assembly id appended to its name so it will look like myproject-1.0.tar)
Now concerning the assemblies definitions.
For the project-tar.xml, I just include the jars in it, you can do whatever you want :
<assembly
xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.2"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.2 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.2.xsd">
<id>project</id>
<formats>
<format>tar</format>
</formats>
<includeBaseDirectory>false</includeBaseDirectory>
<fileSets>
<fileSet>
<directory>${project.build.directory}</directory>
<outputDirectory></outputDirectory>
<includes>
<include>*.jar</include>
</includes>
</fileSet>
</fileSets>
</assembly>
And for the final-tar.xml, I include the project tar and the scripts I have in my folder src/main/scripts :
<assembly
xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.2"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/assembly/1.1.2 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-1.1.2.xsd">
<id>final</id>
<formats>
<format>tar</format>
</formats>
<includeBaseDirectory>false</includeBaseDirectory>
<fileSets>
<fileSet>
<directory>${myproperties.assembly.project-tar.dir}</directory>
<outputDirectory></outputDirectory>
<includes>
<include>*.tar</include>
</includes>
</fileSet>
<fileSet>
<directory>src/main/scripts</directory>
<outputDirectory></outputDirectory>
<fileMode>755</fileMode>
</fileSet>
</fileSets>
</assembly>
And there we are, you have your two tars.
There is a solution more simple which is as you did at the beginning :
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.5.3</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>project-tar</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>single</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<descriptors>
<descriptor>src/assembly/project-tar.xml</descriptor>
<descriptor>src/assembly/final-tar.xml</descriptor>
</descriptors>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
<configuration>
<appendAssemblyId>true</appendAssemblyId>
</configuration>
</plugin>
The descriptors order is very important of course.
The only difference with your initial solution is that I keep the property appendAssemblyId set to true because if not, the two assemblies will have the same name and when the maven-assembly-plugin will try to build the final assembly it will detect that there is a file which is already having this name and will fail saying that it cannot include itself...
With my solution in two executions, you can set the appendAssemblyId to false.

Answer 2

Part of the answer is to use the descriptorRef as outlined in the assembly plugin examples.
Hopefully that will give you something to get started with.