📘 What is Maven?

Apache Maven is a build automation and dependency management tool. It simplifies the build process, especially for Java applications, by:

• Managing project structure and build lifecycle

• Automatically handling dependencies (via the pom.xml file)

• Generating reproducible builds across different environments

• Making collaboration easier with a standardized project layout

• my-app/

• ├── src/ │

• └── main/ │

• └── java/ │ └── com/example/App.java ├

• ── target/

• # Compiled code and final build go here ├── pom.xml # Project Object Model (configuration file)

⚙️ Maven Lifecycle Phases I Used Today:

Maven has a default build lifecycle with phases. Here’s what I used:

Cleans up the target directory (removes old builds)

mvn clean

Compiles the source code

mvn compile

Packages the compiled code into a .jar or .war file

mvn package

result JAR file located in the target/ folder — ready for deployment!