IntelliJ can't find my M2_HOME, why is that?

Question

When I create a new Maven project, I see an error message that says:

[FATAL_ERROR] Cannot start Maven: No valid Maven installation found. Either set the home directory in the configuration dialog or set the M2_HOME environment variable on your system.

In terminal (I'm on a Mac) if I do:

echo $M2

echo $M2_HOME

it displays the full path to my /apache-maven-3.0.3/bin and /apache-maven-3.0.3 folders.

Why would IntelliJ not be able to pick this up?

Please see my [previous answer](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8089213/created-a-maven-project-using-quickstart-using-intellij-didnt-seem-to-generate/8089309#8089309) to your previous question. — Dave Newton, Nov 22 '11 at 03:59
@Blankman, see my answer, it's exactly for your case and describes how to set environment variables on Mac so that they are accessible by all applications, not only in terminal — CrazyCoder, Nov 22 '11 at 05:35

CrazyCoder · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-21T13:44:15.670

3

Environment variables set in terminal are not always visible to GUI applications:

edited Aug 21 '17 at 13:44

answered Nov 22 '11 at 03:36

CrazyCoder

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Link answers are not great as they can change. – Jeff Jul 06 '16 at 15:42
@Jeff called it. The link is now gone. – d33j Aug 21 '17 at 04:57

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 22 '11 at 03:27

Are you on a Linux-type system?

Is the M2_HOME variable only set when you start a terminal session? (e.g. in a .bashrc or equivalent script) ?

Try starting the IDE from the command line and see if that helps.

You might just need to set that variable on a system-wide basis as the shortcut you use to start IntelliJ might not pick up your local environment vars.

IntelliJ can't find my M2_HOME, why is that?

2 Answers2

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