How to install man page for Maven on linux?

Question

I am using linux(mint mate), and installed maven by download & unzip & config the environment, I could use the mvn command.

I want to have man mvn, not just mvn -help, any tip?

@Update:

To make the question clear, there is no man page for mvn, because I install maven by unzip, so I want to install man page for mvn, so that I could use man mvn to get help.

@Gimby There is no man page for `mvn` command, I want to install man page for `mvn`. — Eric, Jul 21 '15 at 14:36

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 06 '21 at 21:55

4

The only way to get the man page for maven is to install maven from apt-get install maven2, but the man page is exactly the same as mvn -help, so I don't see any use in using the version from the repositories because most of the time is an old version.

http://www.manpagez.com/man/1/mvn/

edited Jul 06 '21 at 21:55

Ricardo

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answered Jul 21 '15 at 14:59

isma3l

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Disappointingly, this answer appears to be correct. In an ideal world, Maven would have comprehensive man-pages, like Git. I.e. `man mvn` would provide the Maven man page as it currently does, but `man mvn X` would provide a man page for plugin X. E.g. `man mvn dependency` would provide a man-page describing the goals and options for the [Maven dependency plugin](https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-dependency-plugin/). – May 25 '17 at 18:03
Hm, it looks like at least some Maven plugins do provide help at the CLI, though, albeit not via man-pages. E.g. `mvn compiler:help -Ddetail=true`. – May 26 '17 at 12:43

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 21 '15 at 14:41

2

There is no man page for Maven. It doesn't exist. There's nothing available to install.

answered Jul 21 '15 at 14:41

chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 22 '21 at 16:45

If your download did not include man pages for mvn and mvnDebug, you can use help2man to easily generate mvn.1.gz and then symlink mvnDebug.1.gz to it.

# Change INSTALL_HOME to point to your Maven install path.
INSTALL_HOME="/opt/maven/apache-maven-3.8.4"

mkdir "${INSTALL_HOME}/man"
help2man -o "${INSTALL_HOME}/man/mvn.1" "${INSTALL_HOME}/bin/mvn"
gzip "${INSTALL_HOME}/man/mvn.1"
ln -s "${INSTALL_HOME}/man/mvn.1.gz" "${INSTALL_HOME}/man/mvnDebug.1.gz"

To bind man page(s) and mvnDebug command into the same alternative as mvn, just add slave options then configure the new alternative:

sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/mvn" "mvn" "${INSTALL_HOME}/bin/mvn" 500 \
  --slave "/usr/bin/mvnDebug" "mvnDebug" "${INSTALL_HOME}/bin/mvnDebug" \
  --slave "/usr/share/man/man1/mvn.1.gz" "mvn.1.gz" "${INSTALL_HOME}/man/mvn.1.gz" \
  --slave "/usr/share/man/man1/mvnDebug.1.gz" "mvnDebug.1.gz" "${INSTALL_HOME}/man/mvnDebug.1.gz"

sudo update-alternatives --config mvn

How to install man page for Maven on linux?

3 Answers3