Create a new Maven web application project using the webapp archetype:

$ mvn archetype:generate \
  -DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.maven.archetypes \
  -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-webapp \
  -DarchetypeVersion=1.5 \
  -DgroupId=mtitek.maven.war.samples \
  -DartifactId=mtitek-maven-war-samples \
  -Dversion=1.0.0-SNAPSHOT \
  -DinteractiveMode=false

The generated project structure will look like this:

$ find ./mtitek-maven-war-samples/ -type f
./mtitek-maven-war-samples/pom.xml
./mtitek-maven-war-samples/src/main/webapp/index.jsp
./mtitek-maven-war-samples/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml

The archetype creates a minimal structure. Typically the project structure should look like:

mtitek-maven-war-samples/
├── pom.xml
├── src/
│   ├── main/
│   │   ├── java/
│   │   │   └── mtitek/maven/war/samples/
│   │   │       └── servlet/
│   │   │           └── HelloServlet.java
│   │   ├── resources/
│   │   │   ├── application.properties
│   │   │   └── logback.xml
│   │   └── webapp/
│   │       ├── WEB-INF/
│   │       │   └── web.xml
│   │       ├── css/
│   │       │   └── style.css
│   │       ├── js/
│   │       │   └── app.js
│   │       └── index.jsp
│   └── test/
│       └── java/
│           └── mtitek/maven/war/samples/
│               └── servlet/
│                   └── HelloServletTest.java
└── target/
    └── mtitek-maven-war-samples.war

Once the project is generated, you should update the pom.xml file. Here's an example:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>mtitek.maven.war.samples</groupId>
    <artifactId>mtitek-maven-war-samples</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>war</packaging>

    <name>Maven WAR Sample Project</name>
    <description>Sample Maven web application demonstrating WAR packaging</description>

    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>

        <!-- Spring Boot property -->
        <java.version>23</java.version>

        <!-- maven-compiler-plugin properties -->
        <maven.compiler.source>23</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>23</maven.compiler.target>
        <maven.compiler.release>23</maven.compiler.release>

        <!-- Annotation-based configuration -->
        <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>

        <!-- Plugin versions -->
        <maven-compiler-plugin.version>3.14.0</maven-compiler-plugin.version>
        <maven-war-plugin.version>3.4.0</maven-war-plugin.version>
        <jetty-maven-plugin.version>11.0.25</jetty-maven-plugin.version>
        <jakarta.servlet-api.version>6.1.0</jakarta.servlet-api.version>
        <junit.version>5.13.1</junit.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <!-- APP JAR dependencies -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>mtitek.maven.jar.samples</groupId>
            <artifactId>mtitek-maven-jar-samples</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
            <type>jar</type>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Servlet API -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>jakarta.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jakarta.servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>${jakarta.servlet-api.version}</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Test dependencies -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit-jupiter-engine</artifactId>
            <version>${junit.version}</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <!-- Removes version from WAR name -->
        <finalName>${project.artifactId}</finalName>

        <plugins>
            <!-- Compiler Plugin -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${maven-compiler-plugin.version}</version>
            </plugin>

            <!-- WAR Plugin -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${maven-war-plugin.version}</version>

                <configuration>
                    <!-- Example of files to include in the WAR -->
                    <packagingIncludes>
                        **/*.htm,
                        **/*.html,
                        **/*.css,
                        **/*.js,
                        **/*.jsp,
                        **/*.xml,
                        WEB-INF/lib/mtitek-*.jar
                    </packagingIncludes>

                    <archive>
                        <manifest>
                            <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
                            <addDefaultImplementationEntries>true</addDefaultImplementationEntries>
                            <addDefaultSpecificationEntries>true</addDefaultSpecificationEntries>
                        </manifest>

                        <manifestEntries>
                            <Implementation-Build>${project.version}</Implementation-Build>
                            <Built-By>${user.name}</Built-By>
                            <Build-Time>${maven.build.timestamp}</Build-Time>
                        </manifestEntries>
                    </archive>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>

            <!-- Jetty Plugin -->
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>
                <artifactId>jetty-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>${jetty-maven-plugin.version}</version>
                <configuration>
                    <httpConnector>
                        <port>8080</port>
                    </httpConnector>
                    <stopKey>STOP</stopKey>
                    <stopPort>9999</stopPort>
                    <webApp>
                        <contextPath>/</contextPath>
                    </webApp>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Build the project:

$ mvn clean install

Run the web application using Jetty:

$ mvn jetty:run

You should see output similar to:

[INFO] Configuring Jetty for project: mtitek-maven-war-samples
[INFO] Context path = /
[INFO] Started Jetty Server

Test the web application:

$ curl http://localhost:8080/

Expected response:

<html>
<body>
<h2>Hello World!</h2>
</body>
</html>

Stop the server:
Press Ctrl+C in the terminal.

If the Jetty server was started with mvn jetty:start, then use the mvn jetty:stop command.

If Tomcat was configured instead of Jetty,then you should use the following commands:

$ mvn tomcat10:start
$ mvn tomcat10:run
$ mvn tomcat10:stop