Apache Maven install “'mvn' not recognized

Question

I've followed the official installation instructions here for Windows XP. But sometimes when I execute mvn --version, I receive the error message,

'mvn' not recognized as an internal or external command

I've even rebooted my machine a couple times, but the OS does not always recognize the maven command. But when I execute either, cd %M2_HOME%, or cd %M2% it brings me to the installation directory. I've also made sure to add the user variable M2 to the Path system variable.

So, what gives?

Answer 1

I was facing the same issue while executing the command mvn -version; however, I checked I had also set the mvn options in the environment variables setting, which gave me some Heap memory issue on the command prompt. So, I removed the maven options that I had set and then it worked fine for me.

Answer 2

Had the same problem,

mvn --version

worked but

maven --version

did not. I prefer using 'mvn' over 'maven' anyway so all is well. I also logout/login in to be sure.

Answer 3

Make sure that you haven't renamed some folder which falls in the path of the M2 environment variable. In case you have, then change your M2 and/or M2_HOME accordingly.

It doesn't matter whether M2 or M2_HOME are System Variable or User Variables as long as you are logged in with the same user under whose scope the environment variables are.

Answer 4

Just adding some more info that solved the problem for me:

• Make sure that the %M2% and %M2_HOME% variables doesn't have the semicolon (;) at the end. This should only be used if there are more than one location in that path, which is not the case;
• Also, make sure that in the "Path" variable, there aren't any spaces between the various paths, separated by the semicolon.

Thanks to Pawan Valecha and Abhijeet Sawant for the tips.

Answer 5

Maven should be configured in the following way (can be user variables or system): - M2: %M2_HOME%\bin - M2_HOME: (your directory to Maven's root, not \bin) - PATH: %PATH%;%M2%

You should then be able to run mvn from the command prompt.

Answer 6

I had the same issue, there was no issue in my syntax, but when I moved the M2, M2_HOME, JAVA_HOME environment variables from user to system it started working. Path variables stayed the same.