Apache Maven Javadoc Plugin – Excluding Packages

Excluding Packages

To exclude specific packages, use <excludePackageNames/> parameter as shown below. The parameter accepts wildcard (*) characters in its value but the wildcards should either be at the start or the end of the package name. If more than one package is to be excluded, each package name must be separated either with a colon (':'), a comma (',') or a semicolon (';'). (similar to the Javadoc Tool)

For instance, with the following packages:

com.mycompany.myapp
com.mycompany.myapp.package1
com.mycompany.myapp.package1.subpackage1
com.mycompany.myapp.package1.subpackage2
com.mycompany.myapp.package1.subpackage3
com.mycompany.myapp.package1.util
com.mycompany.myapp.package2
com.mycompany.myapp.package2.subpackage4
com.mycompany.myapp.package2.subpackage5
com.mycompany.myapp.package2.util
com.mycompany.myapp.package3
com.mycompany.myapp.package3.subpackage6
com.mycompany.myapp.package3.subpackage6.subsubpackage1
com.mycompany.myapp.package3.subpackage6.subsubpackage2
com.mycompany.myapp.package3.subpackage7
com.mycompany.myapp.package3.util

You could have the following configuration:

<project>
  ...
  <reporting> (or <build>)
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.10.4</version>
        <configuration>
          <!--
          Exclude packages:
            com.mycompany.myapp.package1.subpackage1
            com.mycompany.myapp.package1.subpackage2
            com.mycompany.myapp.package1.subpackage3
            com.mycompany.myapp.package1.util
            com.mycompany.myapp.package2
            com.mycompany.myapp.package2.subpackage4
            com.mycompany.myapp.package2.subpackage5
            com.mycompany.myapp.package2.util
            com.mycompany.myapp.package3.util
          BUT include the packages:
            com.mycompany.myapp
            com.mycompany.myapp.package1
            com.mycompany.myapp.package3
            com.mycompany.myapp.package3.subpackage6
            com.mycompany.myapp.package3.subpackage6.subsubpackage1
            com.mycompany.myapp.package3.subpackage6.subsubpackage2
            com.mycompany.myapp.package3.subpackage7
          -->
          <excludePackageNames>com.mycompany.myapp.package1.*:com.mycompany.myapp.package2:*.util.*</excludePackageNames>
          ...
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
      ...
    </plugins>
    ...
  </reporting> (or <build>)
  ...
</project>