How to Install Maven on Mac OS X Manually? Fix UnsupportedClassVersion Error: MavenCli

Maven build is the first think we do after working on daily codebase. I usually perform Maven Build hundreds of time in a day. As you may have noticed, on Crunchify almost all of our projects are based on Maven.

Maven is one of the best thing happened to Java Developer community.

With simple maven clean install, maven clean deploy and more command, your word project just builds and deployed with all dependencies. Maven downloads all of the dependencies download to the path specified in settings.xml file.

Do you have a new Macbook Pro and is your Mac running on latest Mac OS X version? If yes, it doesn’t come by default with Maven installed.

Check this out 🙁

bash-3.2$ mvn clean install
bash: mvn: command not found

bash-3.2$ mvn eclipse:eclipse
bash: mvn: command not found

If you have any of below questions then you are at right place:

Maven – Installing Apache Maven
How to install Maven on Mac OSX
How to ensure maven is installed in mac
How to install Maven on Mac OS X without Homebrew?

In this tutorial we will go over steps on how to install Maven on Mac OS X. Let’s get started:

Step-1

Download lates Maven version apache-maven-3.6.0-bin.tar.gz from official site.

We are using linux wget command to download it.

Here is a mirror download location: http://mirrors.koehn.com/apache/maven/maven-3/3.6.0/binaries/apache-maven-3.6.0-bin.zip

bash-3.2$ mkdir ~/crunchify

bash-3.2$ cd ~/crunchify/

bash-3.2$ pwd
/Users/ashah/crunchify

bash 3.2$ wget http://mirrors.koehn.com/apache/maven/maven-3/3.6.0/binaries/apache-maven-3.6.0-bin.zip
--2019-01-17 21:20:50--  http://mirrors.koehn.com/apache/maven/maven-3/3.6.0/binaries/apache-maven-3.6.0-bin.zip
Resolving mirrors.koehn.com (mirrors.koehn.com)... 209.240.109.238
Connecting to mirrors.koehn.com (mirrors.koehn.com)|209.240.109.238|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 9102386 (8.7M) [application/zip]
Saving to: ‘apache-maven-3.6.0-bin.zip’

apache-maven-3.6.0-bin.zip             100%[==========================================================================>]   8.68M  3.25MB/s    in 2.7s    

2019-01-17 21:20:53 (3.25 MB/s) - ‘apache-maven-3.6.0-bin.zip’ saved [9102386/9102386]

Above command will download .zip file to /Users/ashah/crunchify folder.

Step-2

Go to ~/crunchify/ folder or /Users/ashah/crunchify folder.

Extract apache-maven-3.6.0-bin.zip file using unzip command.

bash-3.2$ cd ~/crunchify

bash-3.2$ unzip apache-maven-3.6.0-bin.zip 
Archive:  apache-maven-3.6.0-bin.zip
   creating: apache-maven-3.6.0/
   creating: apache-maven-3.6.0/lib/
   creating: apache-maven-3.6.0/lib/jansi-native/
   creating: apache-maven-3.6.0/lib/jansi-native/freebsd32/
   creating: apache-maven-3.6.0/lib/jansi-native/freebsd64/
   creating: apache-maven-3.6.0/lib/jansi-native/linux32/
   creating: apache-maven-3.6.0/lib/jansi-native/linux64/
   creating: apache-maven-3.6.0/lib/jansi-native/osx/
   creating: apache-maven-3.6.0/lib/jansi-native/windows32/
   creating: apache-maven-3.6.0/lib/jansi-native/windows64/
   creating: apache-maven-3.6.0/bin/
   creating: apache-maven-3.6.0/conf/

Step-3

Next thing is to setup classpath.

Setup maven classpath to your environment variable by updating .bash_profile file.

bash-3.2$ sudo vi ~/.bash_profile

Add below two lines and save the file.

export M2_HOME=/Users/ashah/crunchify/apache-maven-3.6.0
export PATH=$PATH:$M2_HOME/bin

Step-4

How to reload .bash_profile from the command line?

bash-3.2$ source ~/.bash_profile

Or execute below command.

bash-3.2$ . ~/.bash_profile

Step-5

Now try again mvn -version and you are all set.

bash-3.2$ mvn -version
Apache Maven 3.6.0 (97c98ec64a1fdfee7767ce5ffb20918da4f719f3; 2018-10-24T13:41:47-05:00)
Maven home: /Users/ashah/crunchify/apache-maven-3.6.0
Java version: 1.8.0_191, vendor: Oracle Corporation, runtime: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_191.jdk/Contents/Home/jre
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: "mac os x", version: "10.14.2", arch: "x86_64", family: "mac"

bash-3.2$

Facing this error?

Are you getting below error while running command mvn -version?

bash-3.2$ mvn -version
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: org/apache/maven/cli/MavenCli : Unsupported major.minor version 51.0
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:637)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:621)
	at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283)

The problem is because you haven’t set JAVA_HOME in Mac properly. In order to fix that add below line to .bash_profile before export M2_HOME line.

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_191.jdk/Contents/Home

In my case my JDK installation is jdk1.8.0_91.jdk, make sure you type yours.

.bash_profile file with JDK Path:

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_191.jdk/Contents/Home
export M2_HOME=/Users/ashah/crunchify/apache-maven-3.6.0
export PATH=$PATH:$M2_HOME/bin

And you are all set.

Just try running maven and you won’t see any issue. I hope this tutorial will help you setup Maven path on Mac OSX quickly and easily.

Clauss-iMac:Downloads Tim$ mvn Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: org/apache/maven/cli/MavenCli : Unsupported major.minor version 51.0 at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method) at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:637) at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:621) at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141) at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283) at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:58) at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:197) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190) at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.loadClassFromSelf(ClassRealm.java:401) at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.strategy.SelfFirstStrategy.loadClass(SelfFirstStrategy.java:42) at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.unsynchronizedLoadClass(ClassRealm.java:271) at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.loadClass(ClassRealm.java:254) at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.loadClass(ClassRealm.java:239) at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.getMainClass(Launcher.java:144) at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:266) at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:229) at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:415) at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:356) Clauss-iMac:Downloads Tim$

[INFO] Scanning for projects... [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] BUILD FAILURE [INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [INFO] Total time: 0.199 s [INFO] Finished at: 2015-11-22T16:40:28+05:30 [INFO] Final Memory: 4M/65M [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ERROR] No goals have been specified for this build. You must specify a valid lifecycle phase or a goal in the format : or :[:]:. Available lifecycle phases are: validate, initialize, generate-sources, process-sources, generate-resources, process-resources, compile, process-classes, generate-test-sources, process-test-sources, generate-test-resources, process-test-resources, test-compile, process-test-classes, test, prepare-package, package, pre-integration-test, integration-test, post-integration-test, verify, install, deploy, pre-clean, clean, post-clean, pre-site, site, post-site, site-deploy. -> [Help 1] [ERROR] [ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch. [ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging. [ERROR] [ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles: [ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/NoGoalSpecifiedException

17 thoughts on “How to Install Maven on Mac OS X Manually? Fix UnsupportedClassVersion Error: MavenCli”

Aliaksei

Aug 15, 2022 at 12:52 am

Do you know about – sdkman?
NARGIS PARWEEN

Nov 3, 2019 at 11:15 am

I did the same steps inside Document folder, but when I write mvn in my project folder, it show error as “command not found: mvn”. Please help.
- App Shah
  
  Feb 10, 2020 at 11:12 pm
  
  Hi Nargis – could you try with command maven?
  
  Are you running command in Mac Terminal or Windows command line tool?
Alison Pastore

Jun 5, 2017 at 5:21 pm

After completing these steps, I’m still getting the command not found error. Do you know why this is happening?
- App Shah
  
  Jun 7, 2017 at 1:28 pm
  
  That means – your maven is not in your classpath. Could you make sure that your maven lib is in right location and added to classpath?
Md Mazedul Islam Khan

Feb 4, 2016 at 3:47 pm

Your article helped me to understand how this can be install. However, you can short all the process more like I did on my end.

cd ~
wget http://www.eu.apache.org/dist/maven/maven-3/3.3.9/binaries/apache-maven-3.3.9-bin.zip
unzip apache-maven-3.3.9-bin.zip

vim .zshrc

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_05.jdk/Contents/ Home
export PATH=$PATH:~/apache-maven-3.3.9/bin
- App Shah
  
  Feb 17, 2016 at 10:57 am
  
  Thanks for steps 🙂 Happy coding and keep visiting.
adym

Jan 22, 2016 at 8:29 pm

OMG! Thank you! I’ve been fighting this error for 48 hours…this article fixed it
cicoub13

Jan 21, 2016 at 2:50 pm

Thanks

I do get this update:

App Shah

Dec 13, 2015 at 11:51 am
Hi there – seems like an issue with Path and Classpath environment variable. Try exporting JAVA_HOME.

Also – on you Mac – could you try on Terminal window and provide result?
```
echo $JAVA_HOME
```

Hi,

I got the desired result for mvn –version. but when i give the mvn command i am getting the following error- some no goals specified

App Shah

Nov 28, 2015 at 4:02 pm
Hi Aru – which maven command you have executed? I would try with below command.
```
mvn clean install 
```

kambiassa

Jul 11, 2015 at 3:25 am

Hi
I have the same error although I set the JAVA_HOME and even use the same version as you do. I tried to downgrade to java 7 – still no success. Do you have any idea what could be the problem?
John Calvo

Jun 22, 2015 at 2:34 am

I’ve got this error: mvn -version

Error: Could not find or load main class org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher
- App Shah
  
  Jul 9, 2015 at 1:52 pm
  
  Hi John – could you please paste complete stack trace log? It will help debug an issue.
info-menarik.NET

May 4, 2015 at 10:01 am

Thank you for sharing knowledge. I always listen to each new article.