Apache Maven Tips: Add/Append Copyright and License Header to your Project’s Source Code Artifacts using Maven License Plugin

Every project requires proper copyrights and license information header to be added/appended at the top of each of the project’s source code artifacts. There is a very useful plugin for Apache Maven, called Maven License Plugin that helps you easily add/append such copyrights and license information.

First create a copyrights and license header file, for example:

${project}

Copyright (c) ${year}, ${founder}

This project includes software developed by ${founder}
${website}

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
"License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
software distributed under the License is distributed on
an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the
specific language governing permissions and limitations
under the License.

Note the highlighted “parameters” enclosed within special notation “${ }”. We will define the values for these parameters when we will configure Maven License Plugin in our project’s POM file, as show below:

<plugin>
    <groupId>com.mycila.maven-license-plugin</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-license-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.10.b1</version>
    <configuration>
        <header>src/license/LicenseHeader.txt</header>
        <properties>
            <project>${project.name}</project>
            <founder>${project.organization.name}</founder>
            <year>${project.inceptionYear}</year>
            <website>${founder-website}</website>
        </properties>
        <includes>
            <include>src/main/java/**</include>
            <include>src/test/java/**</include>
        </includes>
    </configuration>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <goals>
                <goal>format</goal>
            </goals>
            <phase>process-sources</phase>
        </execution>
    </executions>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.mycila</groupId>
            <artifactId>licenses</artifactId>
            <version>1</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</plugin>

1. Under the configuration tag, notice the <header/> element where we’ve mentioned the path to our copyrights and license header file.
2. Similarly, the <properties/> element under <header/> is the place where you can define parameters and their values to be replaced by the parameter place holders as show in the header file above.
3. The <includes/> element is the place where you can configure which files should the plugin attempt to add/append the copyright and license information. You can use wild cards as shown above.

Following is an example of Source Code file after processed by Maven License Plugin: