Overwrite archetypes in Maven

I'm having some trouble using Maven for my archetypes and I will need to overwrite some. I launch an instruction that does an archetype:generate in an archetype already existing directory.

Is there a parameter that let's me overwrite existing archetypes?

I have search the maven definitve guide but it states that the only parameters accepted are: -DgroupId -DartifactId -Dversion -DpackageName -DarchetypeGroupId -DarchetypeArtifactId -DarchetypeVersion -DinteractiveMode

I could just search the directory and delete the files, but this proccess is going to be done automatically (so no human involved, no brains involved) and I wouldn't like he machine deleting things around.

Thanks for all!

Edit: I almost forgot, here is some maven trace:

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'archetype'.
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Maven Default Project
[INFO]    task-segment: [archetype:generate] (aggregator-style)
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Preparing archetype:generate
[INFO] No goals needed for project - skipping
[INFO] Setting property: classpath.resource.loader.class => 'org.codehaus.plexus.velocity.ContextClassLoaderResourceLoader'.
[INFO] Setting property: velocimacro.messages.on => 'false'.
[INFO] Setting property: resource.loader => 'classpath'.
[INFO] Setting property: resource.manager.logwhenfound => 'false'.
[INFO] [archetype:generate {execution: default-cli}]
[INFO] Generating project in Batch mode
[INFO] Archetype defined by properties
[INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Using following parameters for creating OldArchetype: archetype-foo-lib:1.0
[INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Parameter: groupId, Value: foo.tecnologia
[INFO] Parameter: packageName, Value: foo.tecnologia
[INFO] Parameter: basedir, Value: C:\temp\Desarrollo
[INFO] Parameter: package, Value: foo.tecnologia
[INFO] Parameter: version, Value: 1.0
[INFO] Parameter: artifactId, Value: Foo-Lib-Test
[ERROR] Directory Foo-Lib-Test already exists - please run from a clean directory
org.apache.maven.archetype.old.ArchetypeTemplateProcessingException: Directory Foo-Lib-Test already exists - please run from a clean directory
    at org.apache.maven.archetype.old.DefaultOldArchetype.createArchetype(DefaultOldArchetype.java:242)
    at org.apache.maven.archetype.generator.DefaultArchetypeGenerator.processOldArchetype(DefaultArchetypeGenerator.java:253)
    at org.apache.maven.archetype.generator.DefaultArchetypeGenerator.generateArchetype(DefaultArchetypeGenerator.java:143)
    at org.apache.maven.archetype.generator.DefaultArchetypeGenerator.generateArchetype(DefaultArchetypeGenerator.java:286)
    at org.apache.maven.archetype.DefaultArchetype.generateProjectFromArchetype(DefaultArchetype.java:69)
    at org.apache.maven.archetype.mojos.CreateProjectFromArchetypeMojo.execute(CreateProjectFromArchetypeMojo.java:184)
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultPluginManager.java:490)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:694)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeStandaloneGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:569)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:539)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoalAndHandleFailures(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:387)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeTaskSegments(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:284)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.execute(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:180)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:328)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:138)
    at com.foo.model.CSMavenCli.main(CSMavenCli.java:391)
    at com.foo.model.MavenAdmin.generateArchetype(MavenAdmin.java:399)
    at com.foo.model.ValidarPom.validarPom(ValidarPom.java:167)
    at com.foo.prueba.GenerarPOM.execute(GenerarPOM.java:93)
    at org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.ExecuteAction.execute(ExecuteAction.java:58)
    at org.apache.struts.chain.commands.AbstractExecuteAction.execute(AbstractExecuteAction.java:67)
    at org.apache.struts.chain.commands.ActionCommandBase.execute(ActionCommandBase.java:51)
    at org.apache.commons.chain.impl.ChainBase.execute(ChainBase.java:191)
    at org.apache.commons.chain.generic.LookupCommand.execute(LookupCommand.java:305)
    at org.apache.commons.chain.impl.ChainBase.execute(ChainBase.java:191)
    a开发者_开发百科t org.apache.struts.chain.ComposableRequestProcessor.process(ComposableRequestProcessor.java:283)
    at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.process(ActionServlet.java:1913)
    at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.doPost(ActionServlet.java:462)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:647)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:269)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:188)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:172)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:117)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:108)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:174)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:873)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11BaseProtocol.java:665)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:528)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:81)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:689)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] : org.apache.maven.archetype.old.ArchetypeTemplateProcessingException: Directory Foo-Lib-Test already exists - please run from a clean directory
Directory Foo-Lib-Test already exists - please run from a clean directory
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] For more information, run Maven with the -e switch
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 1 second
[INFO] Finished at: Fri Apr 09 10:01:33 CEST 2010
[INFO] Final Memory: 15M/28M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

I guess you would have to check out the archetype's sources. e.g.

http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/maven/archetype/tags/maven-archetype-quickstart-1.1

apply your changes and run mvn install

that said, you should usually not do it this way

for further reference:

http://maven.apache.org/guides/mini/guide-creating-archetypes.html

I want to override files when regenerating an archetype - similar to your requirements, a user can regenerate a project with different parameters. In my case, I am generating an entire REST stack from a model, and as I make changes to the archetype itself I want to iteratively regenerate all the code.

Part of the reason I want to do this is to leave the IntelliJ project files intact between regens - so that I do not have to re-import the generated project into IntelliJ.

The maven archetype plugin does not override files and does not have an option to enable that.

The solution I found is to delete all files under the generated project except the IntelliJ .iml project files, and leave .idea and all directories intact. Then the archetype plugin will work. I call the archetype plugin from a script and do the delete in that. If 'pp' is the name of the directory containing the project to regenerate:

# This should leave IntelliJ project files intact accross regens.
find pp -type d -name 'target' -exec rm -fR {} \;
find pp -type d -name 'generated' -exec rm -fR {} \;
find pp -type f -not -path '*/.idea/*' -not -name '*.iml' -exec rm {} \;

You should be able to come up with some variation on this to achieve what you want.

There is only a poor man solution: Simply create the archetype to another directory and then copy that over the existing project to update.