ArtifactNotFoundException: The skin does not exist Exception during Maven build

Question

We are using maven as a build tool for project. Till last week our build was going through successfully. Suddenly today we are getting following exception:

[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD ERROR 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] SiteToolException: ArtifactNotFoundException: The skin does not exist: Unable to determine the release version

Try downloading the file manually from the project website.

Then, install it using the command: 
    mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=org.apache.maven.skins -DartifactId=maven-default-skin -Dversion=RELEASE -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=/path/to/file

Alternatively, if you host your own repository you can deploy the file there: 
    mvn deploy:deploy-file -DgroupId=org.apache.maven.skins -DartifactId=maven-default-skin -Dversion=RELEASE -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=/path/to/file -Durl=[url] -DrepositoryId=[id]


  org.apache.maven.skins:maven-default-skin:jar:RELEASE



[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
[INFO] Trace org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: SiteToolException: ArtifactNotFoundException: The skin does not exist: Unable to determine the release version

Try downloading the file manually from the project website.

Then, install it using the command: 
    mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=org.apache.maven.skins -DartifactId=maven-default-skin -Dversion=RELEASE -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=/path/to/file

Alternatively, if you host your own repository you can deploy the file there: 
    mvn deploy:deploy-file -DgroupId=org.apache.maven.skins -DartifactId=maven-default-skin -Dversion=RELEASE -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=/path/to/file -Durl=[url] -DrepositoryId=[id]

  org.apache.maven.skins:maven-default-skin:jar:RELEASE

    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:583)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoalWithLifecycle(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:499)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:478)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoalAndHandleFailures(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:330)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeTaskSegments(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:291)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.execute(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:142)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:336)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:129)
    at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:287)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:315)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:255)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:430)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:375)

Kindly help us resolving this issue.

Answer 1

There might be several causes for this problem (see MNG-3139) that are highly dependent on your context.

Try to clean your local repository:

rm -rf ~/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/skins

And to rebuild your site.

MNGFAQ-121 provides another workaround (yeah, only a workaround).