Maven POM Validator#

Validate and lint Maven pom.xml files for structural correctness, dependency hygiene, plugin configuration, and best practices.

Commands#

lint — Full lint pass (all 20+ rules)#

bash

python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py lint pom.xml
python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py lint pom.xml --strict
python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py lint pom.xml --format json
python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py lint pom.xml --format markdown

dependencies — Audit dependency declarations#

bash

python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py dependencies pom.xml
python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py dependencies pom.xml --format json

plugins — Audit plugin declarations#

bash

python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py plugins pom.xml
python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py plugins pom.xml --format markdown

validate — Quick structural validation only#

bash

python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py validate pom.xml
python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py validate pom.xml --strict

Flags#

FlagDescription--strictExit code 1 on warnings (CI mode)--format textHuman-readable output (default)--format jsonMachine-readable JSON--format markdownMarkdown report

Lint Rules#

Structure (5 rules)#

1. Valid XML — file must be well-formed XML
2. Required elements — groupId, artifactId, version, modelVersion must be present
3. modelVersion must be "4.0.0"
4. groupId format — must follow reverse-domain convention (e.g. com.example)
5. packaging value must be valid (jar, war, pom, ear, rar, maven-plugin)

Dependencies (6 rules)#

1. No duplicate dependencies (same groupId:artifactId)
2. No SNAPSHOT versions in release POMs
3. Version must be defined (not missing)
4. No wildcard/range versions (LATEST, RELEASE, [1.0,))
5. Scope must be valid (compile, test, provided, runtime, system, import)
6. system-scoped deps must have <systemPath>

Plugins (5 rules)#

1. Plugin versions must be pinned
2. No duplicate plugins (same groupId:artifactId)
3. Plugin groupId should be specified
4. Known deprecated plugins flagged
5. Configuration elements checked for common issues

Best Practices (6 rules)#

1. Properties used for version management (DRY check)
2. dependencyManagement used in parent POMs
3. UTF-8 encoding specified (project.build.sourceEncoding)
4. Java source/target version set (maven.compiler.source/target or release)
5. No hardcoded absolute paths in configuration
6. SCM section present

Exit Codes#

CodeMeaning0No errors (warnings OK unless --strict)1Errors found (or warnings with --strict)2Script usage error