How do I include an empty directory in a maven assembly?

Question

In what must be a common occurence, I need to include an empty directory in an assembly. In my case it is logs/.

I've tried different variations in the assembly descriptor like:

<fileSet>
  <directory>${basedir}/target</directory>
  <includes>
    <include>doesntexist</include>
  </includes>
  <outputDirectory>/logs</outputDirectory>
  <fileMode>0644</fileMode>
</fileSet>

and the directory just gets pruned.

I tried to exclude as well, but that still included lots of stuff:

<fileSet>
  <directory>${basedir}/target</directory>
  <excludes>
    <exclude>*</exclude>
  </excludes>
  <outputDirectory>/logs</outputDirectory>
  <fileMode>0644</fileMode>
</fileSet>

Christopher · Answer 1 · 2016-07-27T21:03:18.193

50

This always works for me:

<fileSets>
  <fileSet>
    <directory>.</directory>
    <outputDirectory>logs</outputDirectory>
    <excludes>
      <exclude>*/**</exclude>
    </excludes>
  </fileSet>
</fileSets>

edited Jul 27 '16 at 21:03

answered Jun 04 '13 at 20:35

Christopher

2,260
18
24

thanks for his usefull sample. In addition, if your input 'directory` rely on a build subdirectory, don't forget to forward empty directories at resources step too: cf.https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2605747/maven-how-to-include-empty-directories – boly38 Jun 15 '17 at 09:12

score 19 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

19

Courtesy, this SO answer and with some trial and error, the following one seems to work for me...

<fileSet>
  <directory>src/main/assembly</directory>
  <outputDirectory>/logs</outputDirectory>
  <excludes>
    <exclude>*</exclude>
  </excludes>
</fileSet>

The key seems to be to ensure that <directory> tag specifies a valid/existing folder, which does not have any subfolders.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

1
1

answered Oct 27 '11 at 06:28

Raghuram

49,195
9
101
120

6

If your directory contains folders you can exclude all of them (and all files) using `**/*`. – Leukipp May 22 '13 at 01:01
This solution did not work for me. Christopher's worked fine. – BlackEye Mar 16 '16 at 14:00

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 07 '15 at 04:53

<fileSets>
    <fileSet>
        <directory>./EMPTY_DIRECTORY_NAME</directory>
        <outputDirectory>/REQUIRED_DIRECTORY_NAME in Assembly </outputDirectory>
        <excludes>
            <exclude>*/**</exclude>
        </excludes>
    </fileSet>
</fileSets>

e.g.

<fileSets>
    <fileSet>
        <directory>./Logs</directory>
        <outputDirectory>/Feed</outputDirectory>
        <excludes>
          <exclude>*/**</exclude>
        </excludes>
    </fileSet>
</fileSets>

In this case even though there are some content inside Logs directory, it will not be included in assembled binary in Feed directory.

How do I include an empty directory in a maven assembly?

3 Answers3

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