We could perhaps distinguish:
- pom with default goal available -> execute it
- otherwise: print usage message

> On 8. Sep 2026, at 16:09, Gary Gregory <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> If you run mvn without args, then Maven runs the default goal, so it should
> NOT print help. You could argue that the message should be clearer if there
> are no args AND there is no default goal.
> 
> 2c,
> Gary
> 
> On Tue, Sep 8, 2026, 09:44 Björn Raupach <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> Hello Apache Maven developers,
>> 
>> I'm looking for an explanation of a behaviour in Maven that I'm still
>> unclear about.
>> 
>> If I type the mvn command without any arguments I get an BUILD FAILURE.
>> 
>> What I consider the better option is printing the usage or help instead.
>> The output I am getting when executing mvn -h.
>> 
>> In my humble opinion, this is a quick fix and a small, yet notable,
>> improvement to usability for command line users.
>> 
>> Something like this in the mvn shell script just before the final exec.
>> 
>> if [ "$#" -eq 0 ]; then
>>     set -- "-h"
>> fi
>> 
>> kind regards
>> Björn
>> 
>> 
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--
Gerd Aschemann (er/he) --- Veröffentlichen heißt Verändern (Carmen Thomas)
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