Apache Maven is a free and open-source project management and comprehension tool used primarily for Java projects. Maven uses a Project Object Model (POM), which is essentially an XML file containing information about the project, configuration details, the project’s dependencies, and so on.

In this tutorial, we will show you two different ways to install Apache Maven on Ubuntu 18.04. The same instructions apply for Ubuntu 16.04 and any Ubuntu-based distribution, including Linux Mint, Kubuntu, and Elementary OS.

The official Ubuntu repositories contain Maven packages that can be installed with the apt package manager. This is the easiest way to install Maven on Ubuntu. However the version included in the repositories may lag behind the latest version of Maven.

To install the latest version of Maven follow the instructions provided in the second part of this article where we will be downloading Maven from their official website.

Choose the installation method that is most appropriate for your environment.

Prerequisites

In order to be able to install packages on your Ubuntu system, you must be logged in as a user with sudo privileges.

Installing Apache Maven on Ubuntu with Apt

Installing Maven on Ubuntu using apt is a simple, straightforward process.

  1. Start by updating the package index:

    sudo apt update

  2. Next, install Maven by typing the following command:

    sudo apt install maven

  3. Verify the installation by running the mvn -version command:

    mvn -version

    The output should look something like this:

    Apache Maven 3.5.2
Maven home: /usr/share/maven
Java version: 10.0.2, vendor: Oracle Corporation
Java home: /usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: ISO-8859-1
OS name: "linux", version: "4.15.0-36-generic", arch: "amd64", family: "unix"

That’s it. Maven is now installed on your system, and you can start using it.

Install the Latest Release of Apache Maven

The following sections provide a step by step instructions about how to install the latest Apache Maven version on Ubuntu 18.04. We’ll be downloading the latest release of Apache Maven from their official website.

1. Install OpenJDK

Maven 3.3 requires JDK 1.7 or above to be installed. We’ll install OpenJDK, which is the default Java development and runtime in Ubuntu 18.04.

The installation of Java is pretty simple. Start by updating the package index:

sudo apt update

Install the OpenJDK package by typing:

sudo apt install default-jdk

Verify the installation by running the following command:

java -version

The output should look something like this:

openjdk version "10.0.2" 2018-07-17
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 10.0.2 13-Ubuntu-1ubuntu0.18.04.2)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 10.0.2 13-Ubuntu-1ubuntu0.18.04.2, mixed mode)

2. Download Apache Maven

At the time of writing this article, the latest version of Apache Maven is 3.6.0. Before continuing with the next step, check the Maven download page to see if a newer version is available.

Start by downloading the Apache Maven in the /tmp directory using the following wget command:

wget https://www-us.apache.org/dist/maven/maven-3/3.6.0/binaries/apache-maven-3.6.0-bin.tar.gz -P /tmp

Once the download is completed, extract the archive in the /opt directory:

sudo tar xf /tmp/apache-maven-*.tar.gz -C /opt

To have more control over Maven versions and updates, we will create a symbolic link maven that will point to the Maven installation directory:

sudo ln -s /opt/apache-maven-3.6.0 /opt/maven

Later if you want to upgrade your Maven installation you can simply unpack the newer version and change the symlink to point to the latest version.

3. Setup environment variables

Next, we’ll need to set up the environment variables. To do so, open your text editor and create a new file named mavenenv.sh inside of the /etc/profile.d/ directory.

sudo nano /etc/profile.d/maven.sh

Paste the following configuration:

/etc/profile.d/maven.sh

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/default-java
export M2_HOME=/opt/maven
export MAVEN_HOME=/opt/maven
export PATH=${M2_HOME}/bin:${PATH}

Save and close the file. This script will be sourced at shell startup.

Make the script executable with chmod:

sudo chmod  x /etc/profile.d/maven.sh

Finally load the environment variables using the source command:

source /etc/profile.d/maven.sh

4. Verify the installation

To validate that Maven is installed properly use the mvn -version command which will print the Maven version:

mvn -version

You should see something like the following:

Apache Maven 3.6.0 (97c98ec64a1fdfee7767ce5ffb20918da4f719f3; 2018-10-24T18:41:47Z)
Maven home: /opt/maven
Java version: 10.0.2, vendor: Oracle Corporation, runtime: /usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: ISO-8859-1
OS name: "linux", version: "4.15.0-36-generic", arch: "amd64", family: "unix"

That’s it. The latest version of Maven is now installed on your Ubuntu system.

Conclusion

You have successfully installed Apache Maven on your Ubuntu 18.04. You can now visit the official Apache Maven Documentation page and learn how to get started with Maven.

If you hit a problem or have feedback, leave a comment below.

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