What is the advantage of the 'src/main/java'' convention?

java coding-style conventions
Chris picture Chris · Jun 9, 2010 · Viewed 26.8k times · Source

I've noticed that a lot of projects have the following structure:

  • Project-A
    • bin
    • lib
    • src
      • main
        • java
          • RootLevelPackageClass.java

I currently use the following convention (as my projects are 100% java):

  • Project-A
    • bin
    • lib
    • src
      • RootLevelPackageClass.java

I'm not currently using Maven but am wondering if this is a Maven convention or not or if there is another reason. Can someone explain why the first version is so popular these days and if I should adopt this new convention or not?

Chris

Answer

Boris Pavlović picture Boris Pavlović · Jun 9, 2010

Main benefit is in having the test directory as subdirectory of src with the same directory structure as the one in main:

  • Project-A
    • bin
    • lib
    • src
      • main
        • java
          • RootLevelPackageClass.java
        • resources
      • test
        • java
          • TestRootLevelPackageClass.java
        • resources

All package private methods of RootLevelPackageClass will be visible, i.e. testable from TestRootLevelPackageClass. Since the testing code is also source its place should be under src directory.

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