Common Maven Error

Most of the time when I work with maven I encounter this error:

Reason: Error getting POM for 'org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-eclipse-plugin' from the repository: Failed to resolve artifact, possibly due to a repository list that is not appropriately equipped forthis artifact's metadata.

org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-eclipse-plugin:pom:2.9-SNAPSHOT

As it happens with other maven dependencies their pom.xml file gets somehow modified and the plugin does not work as expected anymore.

The solution here is to navigate to your local repository, delete the dependency and try to download it again. If it still fails (clearly a pom.xml that has not been corrected) then you need to edit the metadata file. In my case:

/Users/sridhar/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-eclipse-plugin/maven-metadata-central.xml

You will notice the "latest node", for example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<metadata>

  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>

  <artifactId>maven-eclipse-plugin</artifactId>

  <versioning>

    <latest>2.9-SNAPSHOT</latest>

    <release>2.8</release>

    <versions>

      <version>2.0-beta-1</version>

      <version>2.0-beta-2</version>

      <version>2.0</version>

      <version>2.1</version>

      <version>2.2</version>

      <version>2.3</version>

      <version>2.4</version>

      <version>2.5</version>

      <version>2.5.1</version>

      <version>2.5.2-SNAPSHOT</version>

      <version>2.6-SNAPSHOT</version>

      <version>2.6</version>

      <version>2.6.1-SNAPSHOT</version>

      <version>2.7-SNAPSHOT</version>

      <version>2.7</version>

      <version>2.8-SNAPSHOT</version>

      <version>2.8</version>

      <version>2.9-SNAPSHOT</version>

    </versions>

    <lastUpdated>20101028062425</lastUpdated>

  </versioning>

</metadata>

Just remove the "latest" node or edit to reflect the version you want to use and problem solved