Maven is an automated build tool that builds using a file called pom.xml, which declaratively specifies how and what to build. Maven projects have a group, an artifact, and a version that identify them in repositories such as the Central Repository, and a packaging type that tells Maven what it is trying to build. The default is jar since the widest use for Maven is for building Java archives; for Tycho, we need to use Eclipse-specific types.

Maven Tycho is a set of plug-ins that allow the building of Eclipse plug-ins. Tycho requires at least Maven 3 to work; the instructions in this chapter have been tested with Maven 3.3.9 and Tycho 0.25.0. Check out the book's errata page for up-to-date information.