Could not understand about Maven pom file using Eclipse

Question

I am very new to Maven and i am creating my first maven project of maven-archetype-quickstart

Then it generates the error message ::

But in my project explorer :

I am unable to understand that why it is creating a proper maven project every time it shows a red warning mark into my project and as well as in my pom.xml file.

> pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <groupId>com.akash</groupId>
  <artifactId>feind</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>

  <name>feind</name>
  <!-- FIXME change it to the project's website -->
  <url>http://www.example.com</url>

  <properties>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <maven.compiler.source>1.7</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.7</maven.compiler.target>
  </properties>

  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <version>4.11</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>

  <build>
    <pluginManagement><!-- lock down plugins versions to avoid using Maven defaults (may be moved to parent pom) -->
      <plugins>
        <!-- clean lifecycle, see https://maven.apache.org/ref/current/maven-core/lifecycles.html#clean_Lifecycle -->
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-clean-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.1.0</version>
        </plugin>
        <!-- default lifecycle, jar packaging: see https://maven.apache.org/ref/current/maven-core/default-bindings.html#Plugin_bindings_for_jar_packaging -->
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.0.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.8.0</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.22.1</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.0.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-install-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.5.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.8.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <!-- site lifecycle, see https://maven.apache.org/ref/current/maven-core/lifecycles.html#site_Lifecycle -->
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.7.1</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-project-info-reports-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.0.0</version>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
    </pluginManagement>
  </build>
</project>

settings.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0"
          xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">

  <!--  Change username in below line  -->        
  <localRepository>/Users/COACH/.m2/repository</localRepository>

  <interactiveMode>true</interactiveMode>

  <offline>false</offline>

  <pluginGroups>
    <!-- pluginGroup
     | Specifies a further group identifier to use for plugin lookup.
    <pluginGroup>com.your.plugins</pluginGroup>
    -->
  </pluginGroups>

  <proxies>
    <!--
    <proxy>
      <id>optional</id>
      <active>true</active>
      <protocol>http</protocol>
      <username>proxyuser</username>
      <password>proxypass</password>
      <host>proxy.host.net</host>
      <port>80</port>
      <nonProxyHosts>local.net|some.host.com</nonProxyHosts>
    </proxy>
    -->
  </proxies>

  <servers>
    <!--
    <server>
      <id>deploymentRepo</id>
      <username>crunchify</username>
      <password>crunchify</password>
    </server>
  -->
  </servers>

  <mirrors>
    <!--
    <mirror>
      <id>mirrorId</id>
      <mirrorOf>repositoryId</mirrorOf>
      <name>mirror description</name>
      <url>http://my.repository.com/repo/path</url> 
    </mirror>
    -->
  </mirrors>

  <profiles>
  </profiles>

</settings>

I am fail to understand that why this happening every time to me and my .m2\repository folder is also empty . Please suggest me some steps to fix it and properly run a maven project.

Answer 1

As reputable sources go:

• apache/maven PR 38 illustrates you should not define any M2_HOME (not with recent maven versions)
• apache-maven/src/bin/mvn shows that, if MAVEN_HOME is not defined, it defaults to where maven is installed.

By deleting your ~/.m2 folder, you have forced Eclipse (through m2e, included in any Eclipse 4.5 or newer), to revert back to a default m2 folder.
It also uses, per FAQ, the default <maven home>/conf/settings.xml

Answer 2

Since i am not behind any proxy so i don't need to worry about the settings.xml file i just deleted .m2 folder and just simply try to create a maven project again and maven itself downloads the required dependencies automatically.

Hence problem is resolved.