mvnx

Maven wrapper written in Rust that provides clean and readable output for multi-module projects.

Features

• Clean output: Shows only essential information
• Reactor build order: Shows the order modules are built in
• Progress indicator: Shows which module is being built currently
• Build summary: Shows:
  • Reactor build order
  • Module status (OK/FAIL) with time spent
  • Overall build status and total time spent
• Test failure details: Shows stacktraces for failed tests (from both .txt and XML reports)
• XML-based error parsing: Parses Maven Surefire XML reports for detailed error messages
• Dad jokes: Optional humor during the build
• Clipboard copying: Copies stacktraces to clipboard automatically

Usage

The wrapper takes the same arguments as mvn:

# Basic build
mvnx clean install

# Skip tests
mvnx clean install -DskipTests

# Specific goal
mvnx clean test

# Custom settings
mvnx -s ~/settings.xml clean package

Special flags

• -h, --help: Show help message
• --mvnhelp: Show Maven's help message (mvn --help)
• -l, --log-file <file>: Write all Maven output to the specified file
• --clip: Copy stacktrace to clipboard when exactly one test fails
• -j: Show dad jokes every 30 seconds during the build
• -ji <seconds>: Show dad jokes with custom interval (implies -j)

Examples:

mvnx clean install
mvnx --clip test
mvnx -l build.log clean install
mvnx -j clean install
mvnx -ji 20 test
mvnx --clip -j package

Output Example

> Building module-a
> Building module-b

================================================================================
BUILD SUMMARY
================================================================================

Reactor Build Order:
  1. module-a
  2. module-b

Module Status:
  OK module-a [2.34s]
  OK module-b [5.67s]

Overall Status: OK SUCCESS
Total Time: 8.01s
Tests: 45 run, 43 passed, 2 failed

================================================================================
TEST FAILURES
================================================================================

[module-b]

--- TestFailureTest.txt ---
java.lang.AssertionError: Expected 42 but got 41
  at TestFailureTest.testSomething(TestFailureTest.java:15)

Stacktrace copied to clipboard.

Testing

Run unit tests:

cargo test

The tests cover:

• Parsing reactor modules from Maven output
• Parsing module build start lines
• Parsing test result summaries
• Filtering stacktraces (removes framework lines, keeps user code)
• Parsing Maven Surefire XML reports for error messages and errors

Installation

From crates.io (recommended)

cargo install mvnx

This installs the latest release directly to your Cargo bin directory (typically ~/.cargo/bin).

Pre-built releases

Download pre-built binaries from the GitHub releases page and add to your PATH:

# Download, extract, and install
wget https://github.com/leifjantzen/mvnx/releases/download/v1.1.0/mvnx-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
chmod +x mvnx-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
mv mvnx-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu ~/.local/bin/mvnx

Build from source

Clone the repository and build:

git clone https://github.com/leifjantzen/mvnx.git
cd mvnx
cargo build --release

The binary will be at ./target/release/mvnx.

Add custom build to PATH

If you built from source or want to use a custom location:

cp target/release/mvnx ~/.local/bin/
# or
sudo cp target/release/mvnx /usr/local/bin/

Then use it:

mvnx clean install

How it works

The wrapper:

1. Starts Maven as a subprocess
2. Captures and parses its stdout output
3. Extracts key information:
   • Reactor module order
   • Module build progress
   • Build completion status and time spent
   • Test failure information
4. Parses Maven Surefire reports:
   • Reads .txt files for summaries
   • Reads TEST-*.xml files for detailed stacktraces and error messages
   • Filters out framework-related stacktrace lines
5. Shows a clean summary with error details
6. Exits with Maven's exit code

Requirements

• Maven installed and available in PATH
• A clipboard tool:
  • wl-copy (Wayland)
  • xclip (X11)
  • pbcopy (macOS)

Limitations

• Optimized for standard Maven output format
• Test failure parsing may need adjustment based on your test framework
• Requires mvn installed and in PATH