The jar file is executable and provides a little tool to display how Maven parses and compares versions:

+----+
$ java -jar maven-artifact-*.jar 3.2.4-alpha-1 3.2.4-SNAPSHOT 3.2.4.0
Display parameters as parsed by Maven (in canonical form) and comparison result:
1. 3.2.4-alpha-1 == 3.2.4.alpha.1
   3.2.4-alpha-1 < 3.2.4-SNAPSHOT

              <goal>xdoc</goal>
              <goal>xsd</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
          <execution>
            <id>standard</id>
            <goals>
              <goal>java</goal>
              <goal>xpp3-reader</goal>
              <goal>xpp3-writer</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
      <plugin>

Donations
---------
Do you like Apache Maven? Then [donate back to the ASF](https://www.apache.org/foundation/contributing.html) to support the development.

Quick Build
-------
If you want to bootstrap Maven, you'll need:
- Java 17+
- Maven 3.6.3 or later
- Run Maven, specifying a location into which the completed Maven distro should be installed:
    ```
    mvn -DdistributionTargetDir="$HOME/app/maven/apache-maven-4.0.x-SNAPSHOT" clean package

            <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
              <links>
                <link>http://java.sun.com/j2ee/1.4/docs/api</link>
                <link>http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api</link>
                <link>http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/collections/apidocs-COLLECTIONS_3_0/</link>

  basis, below:

*** DefaultLifecycleExecutor

  When binding goals to the project's configured lifecycle, each mojo
  descriptor should declare whether it requires online/offline status.
  This value should be a java.lang.Boolean, so it can implement 3VL
  (three value logic: yes, no, don't-care). The requiresOnline
  field in the mojo descriptor has the following semantics:

  [true] Online status is required for this mojo to function

# For Cygwin and MinGW, switch paths to Windows format before running java(1) command
if $cygwin || $mingw ; then
  [ -n "$JAVA_HOME" ] &&
    JAVA_HOME=`cygpath --windows "$JAVA_HOME"`
  LAUNCHER_JAR=`cygpath --windows "$LAUNCHER_JAR"`
  CLASSWORLDS_CONF=`cygpath --windows "$CLASSWORLDS_CONF"`
  MAVEN_HOME=`cygpath --windows "$MAVEN_HOME"`
  MAVEN_PROJECTBASEDIR=`cygpath --windows "$MAVEN_PROJECTBASEDIR"`
fi

exec "$JAVACMD" \
  $MAVEN_OPTS \

    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.2</version>
        <configuration>
          <excludes>
            <exclude>**/Test*.java</exclude>
            <exclude>**/Abstract*.java</exclude>
          </excludes>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.codehaus.plexus</groupId>

    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
        <configuration>
          <forkMode>once</forkMode>
          <excludes>
            <exclude>**/Test*.java</exclude>
            <exclude>**/Abstract*.java</exclude>
          </excludes>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>shade-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>

# Auto detect text files and perform LF normalization
*        text=auto

*.java   text diff=java
*.html   text diff=html
*.css    text
*.js     text

    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
        <configuration>
          <excludes>
            <exclude>org/codehaus/plexus/util/FileBasedTestCase.java</exclude>
            <exclude>**/Test*.java</exclude>
          </excludes>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  <distributionManagement>
    <status>deployed</status>
  </distributionManagement>