The Current State of Apache Maven 4 - Development by Karl Heinz Marbaise

Maven 4 introduces separation between build POM and consumer POM to better serve different purposes

• Build POM contains full build configuration
• Consumer POM contains only dependencies and minimal info needed for consumption

Minimum JDK requirement for Maven 4 is Java 17

Major architectural changes:

• Removed old Plexus dependency injection
• New native HTTP resolver
• Removed wagon transport system
• Updated to Eclipse Aether 2.x resolver

New lifecycle phases and improved control:

• Before/after phases replace pre/post phases
• Better control over plugin execution order
• Simplified integration test phases

New features in Maven 4:

• Better BOM packaging support
• Extension configuration in XML
• Improved plugin validation
• New CLI for password management
• Color output support

Performance improvements:

• Faster bootstrap time
• Improved dependency resolution
• Better module handling for large multi-module projects

Backwards compatibility:

• POM format remains XML-based for tool compatibility
• Maintains model version 4.0 compatibility
• Plugins need updates for Maven 4 API

Configuration changes:

• New .mvn directory for project configuration
• Support for project-specific extension settings
• Improved toolchain support

Cleaner architecture:

• Separated core components
• Removed duplicate functionality
• Better component reuse

Focus on correct implementation over performance in beta phase