Maven – Always download sources and javadocs

Open your settings.xml file ~/.m2/settings.xml (create it if it doesn't exist). Add a section with the properties added. Then make sure the activeProfiles includes the new profile.

<settings>

   <!-- ... other settings here ... -->

    <profiles>
        <profile>
            <id>downloadSources</id>
            <properties>
                <downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
                <downloadJavadocs>true</downloadJavadocs>
            </properties>
        </profile>
    </profiles>

    <activeProfiles>
        <activeProfile>downloadSources</activeProfile>
    </activeProfiles>
</settings>

In my case the "settings.xml" solution didn't work so I use this command in order to download all the sources:

mvn dependency:sources

You also can use it with other maven commands, for example:

mvn clean install dependency:sources -Dmaven.test.skip=true

To download all documentation, use the following command:

mvn dependency:resolve -Dclassifier=javadoc