Unable to build Maven project due to Javadoc error?

Question

Has anyone come across a similar Maven error as below?

I am unable to build my project due to the error below. All was working previously fine before I started working on the code.

I did not even work on the below defined interfaces and it seems to be related to Javadoc?

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-javadoc-plugin:2.9.1:jar (attach-javadocs) on project jonney-project: MavenReportException: Error while creating archive:

[ERROR] Exit code: 1 - /Users/me/Work/myProject/library/src/main/java/com/me/someInterface.java:45: warning: no @return
[ERROR] public abstract boolean searchForDevce();
[ERROR] ^
[ERROR] /Users/me/Work/myProject/src/main/java/com/me/someInterfaceAgain.java:52: warning: no @return
[ERROR] public abstract boolean selectDevice(int pos);
[ERROR] ^

score 132 · Accepted Answer · answered May 08 '14 at 13:28

132

I'm guessing you switched to Java 8. In this version Javadoc is stricter on the requirements.

You have three choices:

Fix the errors
disable the strict checking
skip Javadoc when building

To disable the strict checking, add this to your pom.xml

<plugins>
  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
      <additionalparam>-Xdoclint:none</additionalparam>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>
</plugins>

to skip Javadoc while building, use this:

mvn -Dmaven.javadoc.skip=true verify

Further Information

answered May 08 '14 at 13:28

Absurd-Mind

7,884
5
35
47

3

This does not work with maven-javadoc-plugin version 3.0.0. I had to go back to version 3.0.0-M1 for making -Xdoclint:none work. – Mehrad Sadegh Dec 11 '17 at 03:56
thank you truly. There was no way I was going to fix all the errors. – HighonH Jun 03 '19 at 22:30
The only for me to make this work was to skip `javadoc` altogether - thanks for the tip. Had wasted more than 1hr jumping other hoops... – AnthonyK Mar 18 '20 at 02:56
8

Note: with maven-javadoc-plugin version *3.0.0* `` has been replaced by `` – turbanoff Apr 13 '20 at 12:18
1

To emphasise the above comment, this answer is the wrong answer. – Graham Leggett Jun 12 '20 at 10:08
thanks a lot skipping the Javadoc works for me :) – yousra yousef Jan 16 '23 at 10:50

Jens Piegsa · Answer 2 · 2018-04-28T16:41:13.257

With maven-javadoc-plugin version 3.0.0 <additionalparam/> has been replaced by <additionalOptions/>. To reduce the errors to warnings this pom.xml entry worked for me:

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>attach-javadocs</id>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>jar</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
            <configuration>
                <additionalOptions>
                    <additionalOption>-Xdoclint:none</additionalOption>
                </additionalOptions>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

with maven-javadoc-plugin >= 3.0 we now have `none` (see [this bug report](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MJAVADOC-387)) — Brad Cupit, Jul 23 '20 at 15:15

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 12 '20 at 07:23

UPDATE FOR THOSE WHO GOOGLED THIS BUG: If the project uses source/target 8, adding 8 in javadoc configuration should make the project buildable on jdk {11, 12, 13}:

<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
  <source>8</source>
</configuration>
 ...

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 29 '17 at 09:10

7

Just update your pom.xml with the properties tag, given below.

<properties>
    <additionalparam>-Xdoclint:none</additionalparam>
</properties>

answered Mar 29 '17 at 09:10

Nirbhay Rana

4,229
2
18
4

5

If you are using v3.X of the maven-javadoc-plugin, the parameter name has changed to ```additionalJOption```. See https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-javadoc-plugin/javadoc-mojo.html#additionalJOption. – PatS Sep 28 '18 at 02:32

ZachSand · Answer 5 · 2020-05-05T18:27:09.573

None of the above options seemed to work for me when using version 3.2.0. Instead I noticed the failOnError option. Setting this tags value to false seemed to do the trick for allowing my build to succeed even when there were javadoc errors.

        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>${maven.javadoc.plugin.version}</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>attach-javadocs</id>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>jar</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
            <configuration>
                <failOnError>false</failOnError>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

This will stop the javadoc jar from being generated for the maven project. This was okay in my case as I was only wanting to build without errors during ongoing development. The other options may still allow for the javadoc jar to be generated when there are errors.

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 01 '20 at 10:39

As mentioned by @turbanoff since version 3.0.0 the maven-javadoc-plugin config setting <additionalparam> has been replaced by <additionalOptions>

So the plugin defintion in your pom.xml can look like this:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.0</version>
    <configuration>
        <additionalOptions>-Xdoclint:none</additionalOptions>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

This configuration will still generate the warnings. So you can and should fix them in your code. But it will now no longer break the maven build.

Unable to build Maven project due to Javadoc error?

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