How to Install Apache Maven on Debian 9

Apache Maven is an 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 Debian 9.

The official Debian repositories contain Maven packages that can be installed with the apt package manager. This is the easiest way to install Maven on Debian. However, the version included in the repositories is always several releases behind the latest version of Maven.

To install the latest version of Maven, follow the instructions provided in the second part of this article.

Choose one of the installation methods that works best for you.

Prerequisites #

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

Installing Apache Maven on Debian with Apt #

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

1. First, update the package index:

   Terminal

   sudo apt update

2. Install Maven by running the following command:

   Terminal

   sudo apt install maven

3. Verify the installation by typing:

   Terminal

   mvn -version

   The output should look something like this:

   output

   Apache Maven 3.3.9
   Maven home: /usr/share/maven
   Java version: 1.8.0_181, vendor: Oracle Corporation
   Java home: /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre
   Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
   OS name: version: "4.9.0-8-amd64", arch: "amd64", family: "unix"

That’s it. Maven is now installed on your Debian system.

Install the Latest Release of Apache Maven #

The following sections provide detailed information for installing the latest Apache Maven version on Debian 9. We will download the latest release of Apache Maven from the official vendor website.

1. Install OpenJDK #

Maven 3.3+ requires JDK 1.7 or above to be installed on your system. We’ll install OpenJDK , which is the default Java development and runtime in Debian 9.

Start by updating the package index:

sudo apt update

Install the OpenJDK package by typing:

sudo apt install default-jdk

Verify the Java installation by checking its version:

java -version

The output should look something like this:

openjdk version "1.8.0_181"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_181-8u181-b13-2~deb9u1-b13)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.181-b13, 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, you should check the Maven download page to see if a newer version is available.

Download the Apache Maven archive in the /tmp directory using the following wget command:

wget https://archive.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 maven.sh inside of the /etc/profile.d/ directory.

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

Paste the following configuration:

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 by typing the following chmod command:

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: 1.8.0_181, vendor: Oracle Corporation, runtime: /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: version: "4.9.0-8-amd64", arch: "amd64", family: "unix"

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

Conclusion #

You have successfully installed Apache Maven on your Debian 9. 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.

About the authors

Dejan Panovski

Dejan Panovski is the founder of Linuxize, an RHCSA-certified Linux system administrator and DevOps engineer based in Skopje, Macedonia. Author of 800+ Linux tutorials with 20+ years of experience turning complex Linux tasks into clear, reliable guides.

View author page