The solaris-maven-plugin creates a system-V package from a maven project that can be used to deploy your software on a SunOS/Solaris system.
For many projects, especially in business, the build-process is not intended to end with a binary artifact (jar, war, etc.) or universal distribution. Further there is the need for a configuration-management that is able to build deployment packages for the targeted operating system in a precise and reproduceable way.
These packages allow to install, update and uninstall the software in an automated and ordered way. Further the packaging allows to controll installation dependencies and custom scripts for installation and deinstallation e.g. to ensure that an installed service is restarted after a reboot.
Additional needs in this context are to separate a single application into different deployment packages. E.g. if the configuration that may be specific for the target machine is separated, the deployment package for the actual software can be tested in a test-environment. After successful quality assurance the same package can go in production without customization for the production environment.
The solaris-maven-plugin requires that the pkg-tools (pkgproto, pkgtrans, pkgmk) for solaris are installed and in your PATH. The plugin is written as ant-script that calls the pkg-tools as external process. Therefore it is not possible to run the plugin on a plattform where pkg-tools are not available.
If someone knows the specification of system-V packages and sees a way how to legally create those in pure java with code compatible to the apache software license please contribute.
To get startet with the solaris-maven-plugin read the usage.
