Apache Maven Javadoc Plugin – Using Alternate Javadoc Tool

Using Alternate Javadoc Tool

Using Alternate Javadoc Executable

By default, the Maven Javadoc Plugin tries to auto-detect the Javadoc Tool executable from the Java property java.home or from the environment variable JAVA_HOME.

You could also specify the executable of the Javadoc Tool to use with the <javadocExecutable/> parameter. For example:

<project>
  ...
  <reporting> (or <build>)
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.11.2</version>
        <configuration>
          <javadocExecutable>C:\jdk1.6.0\bin\javadoc.exe</javadocExecutable>
          ...
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
      ...
    </plugins>
  </reporting> (or </build>)
  ...
</project>

IMPORTANT NOTE: by using <javadocExecutable/> parameter, the build will be plateform dependent! A good practice is to define an environnement variable (i.e. JAVA_1.6_HOME), so you could specify it: (i.e. <javadocExecutable>${env.JAVA_1.6_HOME}/bin/javadoc</javadocExecutable>). An other ways is to define a POM property using <project><properties/></project>.

Using Alternate Javadoc Version

In the same way, the Maven Javadoc Plugin tries to auto-detect the Javadoc Tool version by calling javadoc -J-fullversion.

You could also specify the version of the Javadoc Tool executable. For example:

<project>
  ...
  <reporting> (or <build>)
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.11.2</version>
        <configuration>
          <javadocVersion>1.5</javadocVersion>
          ...
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
      ...
    </plugins>
  </reporting> (or </build>)
  ...
</project>

Note: You could have a warning if the javadocVersion specified is not the same that the Javadoc Tool executable.