Thanks Justin, your answer was just what I needed! Actually - you have to configure the war plugin, but it uses the same syntax as the jar plugin. I now got: <plugin> <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId> <version>2.1-alpha-2</version> <configuration> <archive>
<addMavenDescriptor>false</addMavenDescriptor> <manifest> <addDefaultSpecificationEntries>true</addDefaultSpecificationEntries> <addDefaultImplementationEntries>true</addDefaultImplementationEntries> </manifest> <manifestEntries> <version>${project.version}</version> <Implementation-Build>${build.number}</Implementation-Build> </manifestEntries> </archive> </configuration> </plugin> Thanks also for the hint of how to exclude classes - I wasn't even sure if I had to configure the compiler, jar or war plugin. With your hint, it now works! Thanks! Peter