The Apache Maven project management framework provides Sakai with "a set of build standards, artifact repository model and a software engine that manages and describes projects" (Better Builds, p. 22). As part of the installation process you will use Maven as a build tool in order to compile, test and deploy Sakai to a servlet container such as Apache Tomcat.
Maven 3.0.4 is the required for performing Sakai 2.9 builds.
You can download Maven at
http://maven.apache.org/download.html
Extract the distribution archive into your installation directory of choice, e.g. /opt/maven/apache-maven-3.0.4. Confirm that you have installed the correct version of Maven and can start it by issuing mvn --version from the terminal. At this point your environment is prepared to build and deploy the Sakai source code.
mvn --version
Apache Maven 3.0.4 (???) Java version: 1.6.0_20 Java home: /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: MacRoman OS name: "mac os x" version: "10.6.3" arch: "x86_64" Family: "mac"