Maven - build a manifest.mf with customized Class-Path

Question

I am using Maven to build an EAR project with 20+ artifacts and ~30 3rd party artifacts. The EAR structure looks like this

EAR
+-project-artifact-1
+-project-artifact-2
...
+-project-artifact-n
+-lib/
| +-3rd-party-lib-1
| +-3rd-party-lib-2
| ...
| \-3rd-party-lib-n
\-META-INF/

packaging works fine. My problem is with the customization of the Class-Path for the MANIFEST.MF I want to use Mavens feature to create the MANIFEST.MF for me by using

            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <archive>
                        <manifest>
                            <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                        </manifest>
                    </archive>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

I know I can use the classpathPrefix to set a prefix, but this prefix will be added to all dependencies, regardless of their location. For technical reasons, I cannot put all my JAR type artifacts in the lib folder. The only workaround for this would be to set my project-artifact dependencies to scope provided and add them manually to the class path with manifestEntries.

I do not like this workaround, as it is hard to maintain and effectively kills the transitivity of my dependencies (and I want to keep that).

I found this example for a custom class-path but I don't see how I can use it for my purpose. My idea was to use a property to manipulate the class-path, but it seems that you can only use certain attributes of the artifact as variables.

Is there any other way to build the CP (except using a manually maintained MF or manually maintaining the CP entries in the poms)?

this is what my parent pom looks like (shortened):

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">

<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

<groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
<artifactId>build-parent</artifactId>
<version>0.1</version>
<packaging>pom</packaging>
<name>build parent</name>
<description>
</description>

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>myapp-internal</id>
        <url>file:///${user.home}/.m2/repository</url>
        <releases>
            <updatePolicy>always</updatePolicy>
            <checksumPolicy>fail</checksumPolicy>
        </releases>
    </repository>
</repositories>

<properties>
    <!-- variables -->
    <!-- myapp -->
    <myapp.version>0.1</myapp.version>
    <myapp.encoding>Cp1252</myapp.encoding>

    <!-- config variables -->
    <directory.target>../myapp_build/target</directory.target>
    <version.ejb>3.1</version.ejb>

    <!-- 3rd party lib versions -->
    <version.slf4j>1.7.10</version.slf4j>

    <!-- maven plugin versions -->
    <version.plugin.buildhelper>1.3</version.plugin.buildhelper>
    <version.plugin.maven.assambley>2.2.1</version.plugin.maven.assambley>
    <version.plugin.maven.compiler>3.1</version.plugin.maven.compiler>
    <version.plugin.maven.ear>2.9.1</version.plugin.maven.ear>
    <version.plugin.maven.ejb>2.3</version.plugin.maven.ejb>
    <version.plugin.maven.jar>2.4</version.plugin.maven.jar>
    <version.plugin.maven.war>2.4</version.plugin.maven.war>

    <!-- settings -->
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>${myapp.encoding}</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <project.reporting.outputEncoding>${myapp.encoding}</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
</properties>

<!-- define default dependency details -->
<dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
        <!-- myapp dependencies -->
        <!-- com.my.app -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
            <artifactId>artifact1</artifactId>
            <version>${myapp.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
            <artifactId>artifact2</artifactId>
            <version>${myapp.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
            <artifactId>myapp_ejb</artifactId>
            <version>${myapp.version}</version>
            <type>ejb</type>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
            <artifactId>myapp_web</artifactId>
            <version>${myapp.version}</version>
            <type>war</type>
        </dependency>


        <!-- 3rd party dependencies -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
            <version>${version.slf4j}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>slf4j-jdk14</artifactId>
            <version>${version.slf4j}</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

<build>
    <!-- use Eclipse style structure -->
    <sourceDirectory>src</sourceDirectory>
    <outputDirectory>bin</outputDirectory>
    <!-- target -->
    <directory>${directory.target}</directory>

    <!-- define default plugin settings -->
    <pluginManagement>
        <plugins>
            <!-- assambley -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${version.plugin.maven.assambley}</version>
            </plugin>

            <!-- build helper -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>build-helper-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${version.plugin.buildhelper}</version>
            </plugin>

            <!-- compiler -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${version.plugin.maven.compiler}</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>${version.java}</source>
                    <target>${version.java}</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

            <!-- ear -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-ear-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${version.plugin.maven.ear}</version>
            </plugin>

            <!-- ejb -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-ejb-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${version.plugin.maven.ejb}</version>
                <configuration>
                    <ejbVersion>${version.ejb}</ejbVersion>
                    <archive>
                        <manifest>
                            <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                        </manifest>
                    </archive>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

            <!-- jar -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${version.plugin.maven.jar}</version>
                <configuration>
                    <archive>
                        <manifest>
                            <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                    </archive>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

            <!-- war -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${version.plugin.maven.war}</version>
                <configuration>
                    <!-- use provided web.xml -->
                    <webXml>WebContent/WEB-INF/web.xml</webXml>
                    <!-- ressources location -->
                    <warSourceDirectory>WebContent</warSourceDirectory>
                    <!-- build a skinny WAR -->
                    <packagingExcludes>WEB-INF/lib/*.jar</packagingExcludes>
                    <archive>
                        <manifest>
                            <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                        </manifest>
                    </archive>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </pluginManagement>
</build>

this is my (shortened) pom for the EAR:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

<parent>
    <groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
    <artifactId>build-parent</artifactId>
    <version>0.1</version>
    <relativePath>../myapp_build</relativePath>
</parent>

<groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
<artifactId>myapp_application_EAR</artifactId>
<version>${myapp.version}</version>
<description />
<packaging>ear</packaging>

<dependencies>
    <!-- myapp dependencies -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
        <artifactId>myapp_web</artifactId>
        <type>war</type>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
        <artifactId>myapp_ejb</artifactId>
        <type>ejb</type>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
        <artifactId>artifact1</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
        <artifactId>artifact2</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <!-- 3rd party dependencies -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>slf4j-jdk14</artifactId>
    </dependency>

</dependencies>

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-ear-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <generateApplicationXml>true</generateApplicationXml>
                <!-- skinny WAR configuration see WAR project POM -->
                <skinnyWars>true</skinnyWars>
                <modules>
                    <webModule>
                        <groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
                        <artifactId>myapp_web</artifactId>
                        <contextRoot>myapp_web</contextRoot>
                    </webModule>

                    <ejbModule>
                        <groupId>com.my.app</groupId>
                        <artifactId>myapp_ejb</artifactId>
                    </ejbModule>

                    <!-- 3rd party libs go to lib/ -->
                    <jarModule>
                        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
                        <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
                        <bundleDir>lib/</bundleDir>
                        <includeInApplicationXml>false</includeInApplicationXml>
                    </jarModule>

                    <jarModule>
                        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
                        <artifactId>slf4j-jdk14</artifactId>
                        <bundleDir>lib/</bundleDir>
                        <includeInApplicationXml>false</includeInApplicationXml>
                    </jarModule>
                </modules>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

I added some poms for reference. the actual poms are much larger with more dependencies — Cryn, Feb 17 '15 at 19:30
First: Why have you changed the default src location? For Eclipse? Use M2e Plugin in Eclipse. Why have you added a repository entry to local repository? That's the default of Maven? I don't see a multi module build which contains all the modules which you are including into EAR...See https://github.com/khmarbaise/javaee/ as an example. — khmarbaise, Feb 17 '15 at 19:50
src: I don't use the default src location, as I am working on projects that already had this structure - the decision to use maven as build tool was made later. It is too much effort to change that structure now. repo: it is a placeholder modules: these are listed in another pom that just contains the module entries and inherits the parent pom - I don't think it adds much to the question at hand so I left it. My problem is not with the build itself but (that works fine) but with generating the correct(!) CP in the MF for my desired structure without endless configuration overhead — Cryn, Feb 17 '15 at 21:24

Maven - build a manifest.mf with customized Class-Path

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