title: Why I obtain this error message when I try to use the Maven assembly plugin?
body: <p>I am absolutly new in <strong>Maven</strong> and I am studying it on a tutorial.</p>
  
  <p>In this tutorial I have the following <strong>pom.xml</strong> configuration file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"&gt;
      &lt;modelVersion&gt;4.0.0&lt;/modelVersion&gt;
  
      &lt;groupId&gt;com.denofprogramming&lt;/groupId&gt;
      &lt;artifactId&gt;maventutorial1&lt;/artifactId&gt;
      &lt;version&gt;0.0.1-SNAPSHOT&lt;/version&gt;
      &lt;packaging&gt;jar&lt;/packaging&gt;
  
      &lt;name&gt;MavenTutorial1&lt;/name&gt;
      &lt;url&gt;http://maven.apache.org&lt;/url&gt;
  
      &lt;properties&gt;
          &lt;project.build.sourceEncoding&gt;UTF-8&lt;/project.build.sourceEncoding&gt;
      &lt;/properties&gt;
  
  
      &lt;build&gt;
          &lt;plugins&gt;
              &lt;plugin&gt;
                  &lt;groupId&gt;org.apache.maven.plugins&lt;/groupId&gt;
                  &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-compiler-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
                  &lt;version&gt;3.1&lt;/version&gt;
                  &lt;configuration&gt;
                      &lt;source&gt;1.7&lt;/source&gt;
                      &lt;target&gt;1.7&lt;/target&gt;
                  &lt;/configuration&gt;
              &lt;/plugin&gt;
  
              &lt;plugin&gt;
                  &lt;groupId&gt;org.apache.maven.plugins&lt;/groupId&gt;
                  &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-assembly-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
                  &lt;version&gt;2.5.5&lt;/version&gt;
                  &lt;configuration&gt;
                      &lt;descriptors&gt;
                          &lt;descriptor&gt;jar-with-dependencies&lt;/descriptor&gt;
                      &lt;/descriptors&gt;
                  &lt;/configuration&gt;
              &lt;/plugin&gt;
          &lt;/plugins&gt;
      &lt;/build&gt;
  
      &lt;dependencies&gt;
          &lt;dependency&gt;
              &lt;groupId&gt;org.apache.commons&lt;/groupId&gt;
              &lt;artifactId&gt;commons-math3&lt;/artifactId&gt;
              &lt;version&gt;3.2&lt;/version&gt;
          &lt;/dependency&gt;
  
          &lt;dependency&gt;
              &lt;groupId&gt;junit&lt;/groupId&gt;
              &lt;artifactId&gt;junit&lt;/artifactId&gt;
              &lt;version&gt;4.11&lt;/version&gt;
              &lt;scope&gt;test&lt;/scope&gt;
          &lt;/dependency&gt;
      &lt;/dependencies&gt;
  
  &lt;/project&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>As you can see in this configuration file it is declared the use of the <strong>assembly</strong> plugin, this section:</p>
  
  <pre><code>        &lt;plugin&gt;
              &lt;groupId&gt;org.apache.maven.plugins&lt;/groupId&gt;
              &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-assembly-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
              &lt;version&gt;2.5.5&lt;/version&gt;
              &lt;configuration&gt;
                  &lt;descriptors&gt;
                      &lt;descriptor&gt;jar-with-dependencies&lt;/descriptor&gt;
                  &lt;/descriptors&gt;
              &lt;/configuration&gt;
          &lt;/plugin&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>As <strong>descripor</strong> field it is setted the value <strong>jar-with-dependencies</strong> that (from what I have understand) have to create a new target jar file that contains also the delcared .jar dependencies of my project.</p>
  
  <p>So, into Eclipse, I select my prject and the <strong>Run as</strong> ---> <strong>Maven Build</strong> and into the <strong>Goal</strong> input section I write this statment:</p>
  
  <pre><code>clean package assembly:single
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>that have to clean the target directory of my project, create the package and call the <strong>single</strong> goal on the <strong>assembly</strong> plugin that put the jar dependecies into my final jar target file of my project.</p>
  
  <p>The problem is that doing in this way I obtain the following error message into the Eclipse console:</p>
  
  <pre><code>.......................................................
  .......................................................
  .......................................................
  
  Results :
  
  Tests run: 2, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0
  
  [INFO] 
  [INFO] --- maven-jar-plugin:2.4:jar (default-jar) @ maventutorial1 ---
  [INFO] Building jar: /home/andrea/git/maven-java-console-application/mvntutorial1/target/maventutorial1-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
  [INFO] 
  [INFO] --- maven-assembly-plugin:2.5.5:single (default-cli) @ maventutorial1 ---
  [INFO] Reading assembly descriptor: jar-with-dependencies
  [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  [INFO] BUILD FAILURE
  [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  [INFO] Total time: 3.767 s
  [INFO] Finished at: 2015-07-20T15:12:19+01:00
  [INFO] Final Memory: 19M/155M
  [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  [ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-assembly-plugin:2.5.5:single (default-cli) on project maventutorial1: Error reading assemblies: Error locating assembly descriptor: jar-with-dependencies
  [ERROR] 
  [ERROR] [1] [INFO] Searching for file location: /home/andrea/git/maven-java-console-application/mvntutorial1/jar-with-dependencies
  [ERROR] 
  [ERROR] [2] [INFO] File: /home/andrea/git/maven-java-console-application/mvntutorial1/jar-with-dependencies does not exist.
  [ERROR] 
  [ERROR] [3] [INFO] File: /home/andrea/git/maven-java-console-application/mvntutorial1/jar-with-dependencies does not exist.
  [ERROR] -&gt; [Help 1]
  [ERROR] 
  [ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
  [ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
  [ERROR] 
  [ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
  [ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MojoExecutionException
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It seems that it can't find this file: <strong>/home/andrea/git/maven-java-console-application/mvntutorial1/jar-with-dependencies</strong></p>
  
  <p>But from what I have understand on the tutorial this is not a configuration file but a specific Maven value that say to put all the .jar dependencies into my final target jar file that represent my packaged project.</p>
  
  <p>Why I obtain this error? What am I missing? How can I fix it?</p>