To simplify the generation of native images, Native Image now works out of Maven with the Native Image Maven Plugin.
One can build a native image directly with Maven
using the mvn package
command without running the native-image
command as a
separate step. It is sufficient to add native-image-maven-plugin
into the
<plugins>
section of the pom.xml
file:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.graalvm.nativeimage</groupId>
<artifactId>native-image-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>${graalvm.version}</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<goals>
<goal>native-image</goal>
</goals>
<phase>package</phase>
</execution>
</executions>
<configuration>
<skip>false</skip>
<imageName>example</imageName>
<buildArgs>
--no-fallback
</buildArgs>
</configuration>
</plugin>
Then add the org.graalvm.sdk
library dependency in the <dependencies>
list:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.graalvm.sdk</groupId>
<artifactId>graal-sdk</artifactId>
<version>${graalvm.version}</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
The plugin figures out which JAR files it needs to pass to the native image and
what the executable main class should be. If the heuristics fails with the no main manifest attribute, in target/<name>.jar
error, the main class should be
specified in the <configuration>
node of the plugin. When mvn package
completes, an executable is ready for use, generated in the target directory of the project.
If you use Native Image Maven plugin, it will pick up all the configuration for your application stored below the META-INF/native-image/ resource location, as described in Native Image Build Configuration.
It is also possible to customize the plugin within a
<configuration>
node. The following configurations are available.
- Configuration parameter
<mainClass>
: if the execution fails with theno main manifest attribute, in target/<name>.jar
error, the main class should be specified. By default the plugin consults several locations in thepom.xml
file in the following order to determine what the main class of the image should be:
<maven-shade-plugin> <transformers> <transformer> <mainClass>
<maven-assembly-plugin> <archive> <manifest> <mainClass>
<maven-jar-plugin> <archive> <manifest> <mainClass>
- Configuration parameter
<imageName>
: if an image filename is not set explicitly, use parameter<imageName>
to provide a custom filename for the image. - Configuration parameter
<buildArgs>
: if you want to pass additional options for to the native image builder, use the<buildArgs>
parameter in the definition of the plugin. For example, to build a native image with assertions enabled that uses com.test.classname as a main class, add:
<configuration>
<imageName>executable-name</imageName>
<mainClass>com.test.classname</mainClass>
<buildArgs>
--no-fallback
</buildArgs>
<skip>false</skip>
</configuration>
If you use GraalVM Enterprise as the JAVA_HOME
environment, the plugin builds a native image with Enterprise features enabled, e.g., an executable will automatically be built with compressed references and other optimizations enabled.