title: What Version of Maven is Compatible with Java 6?
body: <p>I have to work in an older project that requires java 6 to run, as there are references to depreciated sun classes that have been removed in future versions. As part of the process, I changed my jdk from 8 in my system path to point to java 6 jdk. After doing so I get:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: org/apache/maven/cli/MavenCli : Unsupported major.minor version 51.0
      at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
      at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:637)
      at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:621)
      at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
      at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283)
      at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:58)
      at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:197)
      at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
      at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
      at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.loadClassFromSelf(ClassRealm.java:401)
      at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.strategy.SelfFirstStrategy.loadClass(SelfFirstStrategy.java:42)
      at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.unsynchronizedLoadClass(ClassRealm.java:271)
      at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.loadClass(ClassRealm.java:254)
      at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.loadClass(ClassRealm.java:239)
      at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.getMainClass(Launcher.java:144)
      at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:266)
      at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:229)
      at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:415)
      at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:356) 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This is is similar to <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29255495/maven-installation-osx-error-unsupported-major-minor-version-51-0">Maven Installation OSX Error Unsupported major.minor version 51.0</a> and <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7237536/exception-in-thread-main-java-lang-unsupportedclassversionerror-a-unsupporte">Exception in thread &quot;main&quot; java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: a (Unsupported major.minor version 51.0)</a> however I'm not looking to upgrade, I'm looking to find a version of maven that is compatible with java 6. Any ideas on which version is compatible and where I can download/install it from for mac?</p>