This maven plugin generates services files for the ServiceLoader introduced in Java 6 : http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/ServiceLoader.html

for example:

<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <groupId>eu.somatik.serviceloader-maven-plugin</groupId>
      <artifactId>serviceloader-maven-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>1.0.2</version>
      <configuration>
        <services>
          <param>com.foo.Dictionary</param>
          <param>com.foo.Operation</param>
        </services>
      </configuration>
      <executions>
        <execution>
          <goals>
            <goal>generate</goal>
          </goals>
        </execution>
      </executions>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

this will generate these files:

• META-INF/services/com.foo.Dictionary
• META-INF/services/com.foo.Operation

by scanning the generated classes and finding all non-abstract/non-interface implementations of the service interfaces. The plugin itself has no Java 6 dependency

A example project is provided and can be run like this:

$ mvn2 clean install
...
[INFO] Generating service file .../example/target/classes/META-INF/services/eu.somatik.serviceloader.Operation
[INFO]   + eu.somatik.serviceloader.SimpleOperation
...

$ java -jar target/example-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
Found service implementation: eu.somatik.serviceloader.SimpleOperation@579a19fd
Hello world

The old project path for reference: http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MOJO-1272?focusedCommentId=242147#action_242147