Chapter 10. Configuring Maven using settings.xml file
Java application development uses the Apache Maven build automation tool to build and manage software projects. Maven uses Project Object Model (POM) configuration XML files to define both, the project properties and the build process.
Maven uses repositories to store Java libraries, plug-ins, and other build artifacts. Repositories can be either local or remote. A local repository is a download of artifacts from a remote repository cached on a local machine. A remote repository is any other repository accessed using common protocols, such as http:// when located on an HTTP server, or file:// when located on a file server. The default repository is the public remote Maven 2 Central Repository. Configuration of Maven is performed by modifying the settings.xml file. You can either configure global Maven settings in the M2_HOME/conf/settings.xml file, or user-level settings in the USER_HOME/.m2/settings.xml file.

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