JDK tools.jar as maven dependency

Question

I would like to put JDK tools.jar as compile dependency. I found some examples that indicates to use the systemPath property like the following:

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.sun</groupId>
  <artifactId>tools</artifactId>
  <scope>system</scope>
  <systemPath>${java.home}/../lib/tools.jar</systemPath>
</dependency>

The problem is that the path is not correct for Mac Os X (however it is correct for Windows and Linux). For it, the correct path is ${java.home}/../Classes/classes.jar.

I am looking for a way in order to define a maven property such that if system is detected as Mac Os X, value is set to ${java.home}/../Classes/classes.jar, otherwise it is set to ${java.home}/../lib/tools.jar (like it is possible to do with ANT). Does someone has an idea ?

Answer 1

That's what profiles are for, extract the path to a property, setup profiles for windows, OSX, etc, and define the property values appropriately.

Here's the doc page that discussing profiles for OSes: Maven Local Settings Model

It should endup looking something like this:

  <profiles>
    <profile>
      <id>windows_profile</id>
      <activation>
        <os>
          <family>Windows</family>
        </os>
      </activation>
      <properties>
        <toolsjar>${java.home}/../lib/tools.jar</toolsjar>
      </properties>
    </profile>
    <profile>
      <id>osx_profile</id>
      <activation>
        <os>
          <family>mac</family>
        </os>
      </activation>
      <properties>
        <toolsjar>${java.home}/../Classes/classes.jar</toolsjar>
      </properties>
    </profile>
  </profiles>

Answer 2

Thank you for introducing me maven profiles.

I have used profile as mentioned above and by activating a profile based on the presence of the desired file :

<profiles>
    <profile>
        <id>default-profile</id>
        <activation>
            <activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
            <file>
                <exists>${java.home}/../lib/tools.jar</exists>
            </file>
        </activation>
        <properties>
            <toolsjar>${java.home}/../lib/tools.jar</toolsjar>
        </properties>
    </profile>
    <profile>
        <id>mac-profile</id>
        <activation>
            <activeByDefault>false</activeByDefault>
            <file>
                <exists>${java.home}/../Classes/classes.jar</exists>
            </file>
        </activation>
        <properties>
            <toolsjar>${java.home}/../Classes/classes.jar</toolsjar>
        </properties>
    </profile>
</profiles>

I posted this answer to highlight a mistake in the previous post : the property section can only be used in activation section in order to activate a profile based on the existence of the specified property. In order to define a property, the properties section must be used like above.

Answer 3

my solution: 1) put the Sun's tools.jar to the $JAVA_HOME/lib 2) make a symlink in the $JAVA_HOME/.. named lib where target will be $JAVA_HOME/lib