JDK tools.jar as maven dependency

Solution 1:

That's what profiles are for, extract the path to a property, setup profiles for windows, OSX, etc, and define the property values appropriately.

Here's the doc page that discussing profiles for OSes: Maven Local Settings Model

It should endup looking something like this:

  <profiles>
    <profile>
      <id>windows_profile</id>
      <activation>
        <os>
          <family>Windows</family>
        </os>
      </activation>
      <properties>
        <toolsjar>${java.home}/../lib/tools.jar</toolsjar>
      </properties>
    </profile>
    <profile>
      <id>osx_profile</id>
      <activation>
        <os>
          <family>mac</family>
        </os>
      </activation>
      <properties>
        <toolsjar>${java.home}/../Classes/classes.jar</toolsjar>
      </properties>
    </profile>
  </profiles>

Solution 2:

Thank you for introducing me maven profiles.

I have used profile as mentioned above and by activating a profile based on the presence of the desired file :

<profiles>
    <profile>
        <id>default-profile</id>
        <activation>
            <activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
            <file>
                <exists>${java.home}/../lib/tools.jar</exists>
            </file>
        </activation>
        <properties>
            <toolsjar>${java.home}/../lib/tools.jar</toolsjar>
        </properties>
    </profile>
    <profile>
        <id>mac-profile</id>
        <activation>
            <activeByDefault>false</activeByDefault>
            <file>
                <exists>${java.home}/../Classes/classes.jar</exists>
            </file>
        </activation>
        <properties>
            <toolsjar>${java.home}/../Classes/classes.jar</toolsjar>
        </properties>
    </profile>
</profiles>

I posted this answer to highlight a mistake in the previous post : the property section can only be used in activation section in order to activate a profile based on the existence of the specified property. In order to define a property, the properties section must be used like above.

Solution 3:

Hi I know you guys are all smart, but it caused me couple of days to figure out the answer is not complete - both the profile and the dependency is necessary. I hope no one will waste time on this again. Please see my complete code below:

<profiles>
    <profile>
        <id>osx_profile</id>
        <activation>
            <activeByDefault>false</activeByDefault>
            <os>
                <family>mac</family>
            </os>
        </activation>
        <properties>
            <toolsjar>${java.home}/../Classes/classes.jar</toolsjar>
        </properties>
        <dependencies>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>com.sun</groupId>
                <artifactId>tools</artifactId>
                <version>1.6.0</version>
                <scope>system</scope>
                <systemPath>${toolsjar}</systemPath>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </profile>
</profiles>

Solution 4:

I found a solution in Q: Declare maven dependency on tools.jar to work on JDK 9

As the actual maven wizardry is quite elaborate, surprising to newcomers and a subject of future improvements, it is better not co copy-paste it around. Hence this module exists so you do not have to know or care about the details. ~~ https://github.com/olivergondza/maven-jdk-tools-wrapper

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.github.olivergondza</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-jdk-tools-wrapper</artifactId>
  <version>0.1</version>
</dependency>