Question

How to run the equivalent of mvn install:install-file before the compilation phase. We have a file under lib/foo-1.0.0.jar which is not present in a Maven repo. So we install it manually using mvn install:install-file and put this as a dependency during the compile phase. But if the file is not installed in your local repository, it fails with a compilation error. How do I instruct maven to install this automatically prior to compilation

Answer 1

Use system dependency scope

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.company.groupId</groupId>
  <artifactId>foo</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
  <scope>system</scope>
  <systemPath>${basedir}/lib/foo-1.0.0.jar</systemPath>
</dependency> 

${basedir} – is dir of your pom.xml
EDIT
also you can use build-helper-maven-plugin

<plugin>
        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
        <artifactId>build-helper-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>1.7</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>attach-artifacts</id>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>attach-artifact</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
              <artifacts>
                <artifact>
                  <file>${basedir}/lib/foo-1.0.0.jar</file>
                  <type>jar</type>
                  <classifier>optional</classifier>
                </artifact>
              </artifacts>
            </configuration>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>