Windows 2000/XP

1. Unzip the distribution archive, i.e. apache-maven-2.2.0-bin.zip to the directory you wish to install Maven 2.2.0. These instructions assume you chose C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation. The subdirectory apache-maven-2.2.0 will be created from the archive.
2. Add the M2_HOME environment variable by opening up the system properties (WinKey + Pause), selecting the "Advanced" tab, and the "Environment Variables" button, then adding the M2_HOME variable in the user variables with the value C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\apache-maven-2.2.0. Be sure to omit any quotation marks around the path even if it contains spaces. Note: For Maven < 2.0.9, also be sure that the M2_HOME doesn't have a '\' as last character.
3. In the same dialog, add the M2 environment variable in the user variables with the value %M2_HOME%\bin.
4. Optional: In the same dialog, add the MAVEN_OPTS environment variable in the user variables to specify JVM properties, e.g. the value -Xms256m -Xmx512m. This environment variable can be used to supply extra options to Maven.
5. In the same dialog, update/create the Path environment variable in the user variables and prepend the value %M2% to add Maven available in the command line.
6. In the same dialog, make sure that JAVA_HOME exists in your user variables or in the system variables and it is set to the location of your JDK, e.g. C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_02 and that %JAVA_HOME%\bin is in your Path environment variable.
7. Open a new command prompt (Winkey + R then type cmd) and run mvn --version to verify that it is correctly installed.

Unix-based Operating Systems (Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X)

1. Extract the distribution archive, i.e. apache-maven-2.2.0-bin.tar.gz to the directory you wish to install Maven 2.2.0. These instructions assume you chose /usr/local/apache-maven. The subdirectory apache-maven-2.2.0 will be created from the archive.
2. In a command terminal, add the M2_HOME environment variable, e.g. export M2_HOME=/usr/local/apache-maven/apache-maven-2.2.0.
3. Add the M2 environment variable, e.g. export M2=$M2_HOME/bin.
4. Optional: Add the MAVEN_OPTS environment variable to specify JVM properties, e.g. export MAVEN_OPTS="-Xms256m -Xmx512m". This environment variable can be used to supply extra options to Maven.
5. Add M2 environment variable to your path, e.g. export PATH=$M2:$PATH.
6. Make sure that JAVA_HOME is set to the location of your JDK, e.g. export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.5.0_02 and that $JAVA_HOME/bin is in your PATH environment variable.
7. Run mvn --version to verify that it is correctly installed.

Optional configuration

Maven will work for most tasks with the above configuration, however if you have any environmental specific configuration outside of individual projects then you will need to configure settings. The following sections refer to what is available.