CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javamaven
Maulik Patel
Maulik Patel

Reputation: 2802

What is the difference between interactive and batch mode in Maven?

I have created a Java application with the help of Maven plugin for using following maven goal:

mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=net.javabeat 
  -DartifactId=SampleJavaProject
  -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quick-start
  -DinteractiveMode=false

When -DinteractiveMode=false, then project is created in batch mode, and when -DinteractiveMode=true, then project is created in interactive mode.
I'm confused with interactive mode and batch mode. What are those?

Upvotes: 84

Views: 81052

Answers (3)

Adam Burley
Adam Burley

Reputation: 6069

Batch mode causes Maven to not display "Progress: 125/150kB" style lines when running. If you are running Maven on some server and then checking the logs afterwards, these progress lines take up 90% of the log and make it basically impossible to find the stuff that matters. Setting batch mode prevents this. Apart from that, I don't know any other use for batch mode. As others have said, I have never seen Maven prompt for anything during a build, regardless of whether interactive or batch mode is set.

EDIT: As pointed out by @jhericks in comments, Maven can prompt for things during a build in interactive mode, for example if you run mvn versions:set it will prompt you for the new version to set. Trying to run such commands in batch mode will cause the build to fail with an error message that suggests re-running the build in interactive mode (or supplying the needed values as command-line parameters).

Upvotes: 102

Guillaume Husta
Guillaume Husta

Reputation: 4385

A common use case for --batch-mode is when using Maven on a Continuous Integration server, like said in this doc : Running Maven in Batch Mode.

So it will for example suppress upload messages to avoid polluting the console log.

For example, when you create a new file on GitLab through the template .gitlab-ci.yml for Maven, you will have the following in the variables :

variables:
  # This will suppress any download for dependencies and plugins or upload messages which would clutter the console log.
  # `showDateTime` will show the passed time in milliseconds. You need to specify `--batch-mode` to make this work.
  MAVEN_OPTS: "-Dhttps.protocols=TLSv1.2 -Dmaven.repo.local=$CI_PROJECT_DIR/.m2/repository -Dorg.slf4j.simpleLogger.log.org.apache.maven.cli.transfer.Slf4jMavenTransferListener=WARN -Dorg.slf4j.simpleLogger.showDateTime=true -Djava.awt.headless=true"
  # As of Maven 3.3.0 instead of this you may define these options in `.mvn/maven.config` so the same config is used
  # when running from the command line.
  # `installAtEnd` and `deployAtEnd` are only effective with recent version of the corresponding plugins.
  MAVEN_CLI_OPTS: "--batch-mode --errors --fail-at-end --show-version -DinstallAtEnd=true -DdeployAtEnd=true"

You can see that --batch-mode is enabled by default.

Upvotes: 29

khmarbaise
khmarbaise

Reputation: 97457

The batch-mode will automatically use default values instead of asking you via prompt for those values. The batch-mode can also be activated via --batch-mode or -B on command line.

Upvotes: 87

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