Nexus Public Build Repository

This repository serves as a build wrapper for Sonatype Nexus Repository OSS.

Problem

The official Nexus Public Repository has some challenges:

• A separate branch is created for each version (e.g., release-3.86.0-08)
• The main branch is only sporadically updated (last update: February 2025)
• Releases are maintained as separate branches and tags, not as continuous development in the main branch
• The build requires a specific setup (Java 21, Yarn 1.22 & Maven profile "public")
• Build documentation is incomplete and requires knowledge of Maven profiles

Solution

This repository automates the build process with GitHub Actions and creates usable artifacts:

• Build artifacts: .tar.gz and .zip distributions
• Docker images: Automatically built and published to GitHub Container Registry

Quick Start with Docker

The fastest way to run Nexus OSS is using the pre-built Docker image:

docker pull ghcr.io/christianhoesel/nexus-public-build:latest
docker run -d -p 8081:8081 -v nexus-data:/nexus-data ghcr.io/christianhoesel/nexus-public-build:latest

Access Nexus at http://localhost:8081

For detailed Docker usage, configuration, and troubleshooting, see DOCKER.md.

Usage

Manual Build via GitHub Actions

1. Go to the "Actions" tab in this repository
2. Select the workflow "Build Nexus OSS"
3. Click on "Run workflow"
4. Enter the desired Nexus version (e.g., release-3.94.0-12)
5. Built artifacts can be found under "Artifacts" after the build completes

Available Versions

Find Nexus versions here:

• Branches: https://github.com/sonatype/nexus-public/branches/all
• Releases/Tags: https://github.com/sonatype/nexus-public/releases

Current examples (as of July 2026):

• release-3.94.0-12 (latest)
• release-3.93.0-06
• release-3.89.0-09

Note: Branch names correspond to release tags. Use the branch name for the build.

Local Build

If you want to build locally:

# Simply use the build script
chmod +x build-local.sh
./build-local.sh release-3.94.0-12

The build script automatically performs the following steps:

1. Clones the Nexus Public Repository
2. Enables Corepack and configures Yarn 4 with nodeLinker: node-modules
3. Installs all dependencies with Yarn 4
4. Builds all frontend components with yarn workspaces foreach run build-all
5. Switches to Yarn 1.22.22 for Maven compatibility
6. Runs Maven build with -Ppublic -Dskip.installyarn -Dskip.yarn -DskipTests
7. Creates .tar.gz and .zip distributions

The finished artifacts can then be found in the Nexus build tree:

• nexus-*-unix.tar.gz (~133 MB)
• nexus-*-unix.zip

Running Nexus from Artifacts

After extracting the tarball or zip, you can run Nexus with:

# Extract the archive
tar -xzf nexus-*-unix.tar.gz
cd nexus-*/

# Set environment variables (required)
source bin/nexus-env.sh

# Start Nexus
bin/nexus run

The nexus-env.sh script sets the required INSTALL4J_ADD_VM_PARAMS environment variable with:

• Memory settings (2.7GB heap and direct memory by default)
• Java preferences location

You can also set INSTALL4J_ADD_VM_PARAMS manually if you want to customize memory settings:

export INSTALL4J_ADD_VM_PARAMS="-Xms4g -Xmx4g -XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=4g -Djava.util.prefs.userRoot=${NEXUS_DATA:-./sonatype-work/nexus3}/javaprefs"
bin/nexus run

Build Requirements

• Java: OpenJDK 21 or 25 (Temurin recommended)
• Node.js: Version 18 or higher
• Corepack: For Yarn 4 (activate with corepack enable)
• Yarn: Version 4.9.1 for frontend build, version 1.22.22 for Maven (automatically managed by build script)
• Maven: Apache Maven 3.9+ (must be installed separately)
• RAM: At least 4 GB for the build process
• Disk: ~2 GB for dependencies and build artifacts

Build Process Details

The build uses a two-phase strategy:

Phase 1: Frontend Build with Yarn 4

• Yarn 4.9.1 is activated via Corepack
• nodeLinker: node-modules for rspack compatibility
• Dependencies are installed with yarn install --no-immutable
• Frontend components are built with yarn workspaces foreach run build-all

Phase 2: Maven Build with Yarn 1

• Switch to Yarn 1.22.22 (via npm install -g yarn@1.22.22)
• Maven build with -Ppublic profile
• Flags -Dskip.installyarn -Dskip.yarn skip redundant Yarn steps
• -DskipTests speeds up the build (tests optional)

Automatic Builds

The GitHub Actions workflow automatically runs builds:

• On Push: To the main branch
• Manual: Via workflow_dispatch with version selection

Weekly automatic builds are currently disabled (can be enabled via cron schedule).

Artifacts

After a successful build, the following artifacts are provided:

Build Artifacts

• nexus-*.tar.gz - Unix/Linux distribution
• nexus-*.zip - Windows distribution

Artifacts are kept for 30 days.

Docker Images

Docker images are automatically built and published to the GitHub Container Registry:

• Registry: ghcr.io/christianhoesel/nexus-public-build
• Tags:
  • latest - Latest build from main branch
  • <version> - Specific Nexus version (e.g., 3.94.0-12)
  • <branch>-<sha> - Branch-specific builds

# Pull latest version
docker pull ghcr.io/christianhoesel/nexus-public-build:latest

# Pull specific version
docker pull ghcr.io/christianhoesel/nexus-public-build:<version>

See DOCKER.md for complete Docker usage documentation.

Maven Profile "public"

The Maven profile -Ppublic is required for the OSS build. It activates the necessary modules and configurations for the public version of Nexus Repository.

License

Nexus Repository OSS is licensed under the Eclipse Public License. This build repository is MIT licensed.

Resources

• Nexus Repository Documentation
• Nexus Public GitHub
• Community Forum