change maven local repository path - symbolic links

Let's suppose we want to change the local maven repo path (default : c:\users\user_name\.m2\repository) to some other real folder - lets say e:\repo  - so that the contents from e:\repo folder are mapped to the default folder location.

This might be useful when .m2 folder on your C: drive is taking too much space. In such case, you can move the content to another drive ( e:\repo) and have a symbolic link on C:\ drive instead - so that all the configuration remains intact.

The following command creates a link folder "repository" in /.m2 folder and points to the source e:\REPO

C:\>mklink /d c:\users\gtiwari\.m2\repository e:\REPO


Note:

• Syntax : mklink /d TARGET SOURCE_DIR
• For more information about the mklink command visit : http://ganeshtiwaridotcomdotnp.blogspot.com/2014/08/using-symbolic-links-on-windows.html  
• we can do it using other options as mentioned in http://stackoverflow.com/questions/71030/can-i-add-maven-repositories-in-the-command-line