title: Maven error: "Non-parseable POM: start tag not allowed in epilog"
body: <p>I am using Maven and Bing API to create a web search interface for a class project. When compiling the files through the command prompt, I am receiving a weird error. </p>
  
  <p>This is the command line results when compiling:</p>
  
  <pre><code>C:\Users\zacha\Desktop\java-project&gt;mvn compile exec:java
  [INFO] Scanning for projects...
  [ERROR] [ERROR] Some problems were encountered while processing the POMs:
  [FATAL] Non-parseable POM C:\Users\zacha\Desktop\java-project\pom.xml: start tag not allowed in epilog but got b (position: END_TAG seen ...&lt;/build&gt;\r\n&lt;/project&gt;\r\n&lt;b... @46:3)  @ line 46, column 3
   @
  [ERROR] The build could not read 1 project -&gt; [Help 1]
  [ERROR]
  [ERROR]   The project  (C:\Users\zacha\Desktop\java-project\pom.xml) has 1 error
  [ERROR]     Non-parseable POM C:\Users\zacha\Desktop\java-project\pom.xml: start tag not allowed in epilog but got b (position: END_TAG seen ...&lt;/build&gt;\r\n&lt;/project&gt;\r\n&lt;b... @46:3)  @ line 46, column 3 -&gt; [Help 2]
  [ERROR]
  [ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
  [ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
  [ERROR]
  [ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
  [ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/ProjectBuildingException
  [ERROR] [Help 2] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/ModelParseException
  
  C:\Users\zacha\Desktop\java-project&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Below is my POM file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
  &lt;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"&gt;
    &lt;modelVersion&gt;4.0.0&lt;/modelVersion&gt;
    &lt;groupId&gt;com.websearch.web&lt;/groupId&gt;
    &lt;artifactId&gt;java-project&lt;/artifactId&gt;
    &lt;version&gt;1&lt;/version&gt;
    &lt;name&gt;New Project Using SchemaCrawler&lt;/name&gt;
    &lt;dependencies&gt;
      &lt;dependency&gt;
        &lt;groupId&gt;junit&lt;/groupId&gt;
        &lt;artifactId&gt;junit&lt;/artifactId&gt;
        &lt;version&gt;4.11&lt;/version&gt;
        &lt;scope&gt;test&lt;/scope&gt;
      &lt;/dependency&gt;
      &lt;dependency&gt;
        &lt;groupId&gt;org.hsqldb&lt;/groupId&gt;
        &lt;artifactId&gt;hsqldb&lt;/artifactId&gt;
        &lt;version&gt;2.3.2&lt;/version&gt;
        &lt;scope&gt;provided&lt;/scope&gt;
      &lt;/dependency&gt;
      &lt;dependency&gt;
        &lt;groupId&gt;us.fatehi&lt;/groupId&gt;
        &lt;artifactId&gt;schemacrawler&lt;/artifactId&gt;
        &lt;version&gt;${schemacrawler.version}&lt;/version&gt;
      &lt;/dependency&gt;
    &lt;/dependencies&gt;  
    &lt;properties&gt;
      &lt;project.build.sourceEncoding&gt;UTF-8&lt;/project.build.sourceEncoding&gt;
      &lt;schemacrawler.version&gt;11.02.01&lt;/schemacrawler.version&gt;
      &lt;skip.signing.artifacts&gt;true&lt;/skip.signing.artifacts&gt;
    &lt;/properties&gt;
    &lt;build&gt;
      &lt;plugins&gt;
        &lt;plugin&gt;
          &lt;groupId&gt;org.apache.maven.plugins&lt;/groupId&gt;
          &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-compiler-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
          &lt;version&gt;3.1&lt;/version&gt;
          &lt;configuration&gt;
            &lt;source&gt;7&lt;/source&gt;
            &lt;target&gt;7&lt;/target&gt;
          &lt;/configuration&gt;
        &lt;/plugin&gt;
      &lt;/plugins&gt;
    &lt;/build&gt;
  &lt;/project&gt;
  &lt;build&gt;
      &lt;plugins&gt;
        &lt;plugin&gt;
          &lt;groupId&gt;org.codehaus.mojo&lt;/groupId&gt;
          &lt;artifactId&gt;exec-maven-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
          &lt;version&gt;1.4.0&lt;/version&gt;
          &lt;configuration&gt;
            &lt;!--Your comment
              Replace the mainClass with the path to your java application.
              It should begin with com and doesn't require the .java extension.
              For example: com.bingwebsearch.app.BingWebSearchSample. This maps to
              The following directory structure:
              src/main/java/com/bingwebsearch/app/BingWebSearchSample.java.
            --&gt;
            &lt;mainClass&gt;com.WebSearch&lt;/mainClass&gt;
          &lt;/configuration&gt;
        &lt;/plugin&gt;
        &lt;plugin&gt;
          &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-compiler-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
          &lt;version&gt;3.0&lt;/version&gt;
          &lt;configuration&gt;
            &lt;source&gt;1.7&lt;/source&gt;
            &lt;target&gt;1.7&lt;/target&gt;
          &lt;/configuration&gt;
        &lt;/plugin&gt;
        &lt;plugin&gt;
          &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-assembly-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
          &lt;executions&gt;
            &lt;execution&gt;
              &lt;phase&gt;package&lt;/phase&gt;
              &lt;goals&gt;
                &lt;goal&gt;attached&lt;/goal&gt;
              &lt;/goals&gt;
              &lt;configuration&gt;
                &lt;descriptorRefs&gt;
                  &lt;descriptorRef&gt;jar-with-dependencies&lt;/descriptorRef&gt;
                &lt;/descriptorRefs&gt;
                &lt;archive&gt;
                  &lt;manifest&gt;
                    &lt;!--Your comment
                      Replace the mainClass with the path to your java application.
                      For example: com.bingwebsearch.app.BingWebSearchSample.java.
                      This maps to the following directory structure:
                      src/main/java/com/bingwebsearch/app/BingWebSearchSample.java.
                    --&gt;
                    &lt;mainClass&gt;com.WebSearch.java&lt;/mainClass&gt;
                  &lt;/manifest&gt;
                &lt;/archive&gt;
              &lt;/configuration&gt;
            &lt;/execution&gt;
          &lt;/executions&gt;
        &lt;/plugin&gt;
      &lt;/plugins&gt;
    &lt;/build&gt;
    &lt;dependencies&gt;
      &lt;dependency&gt;
        &lt;groupId&gt;com.microsoft.azure&lt;/groupId&gt;
        &lt;artifactId&gt;azure&lt;/artifactId&gt;
        &lt;version&gt;1.9.0&lt;/version&gt;
      &lt;/dependency&gt;
      &lt;dependency&gt;
        &lt;groupId&gt;commons-net&lt;/groupId&gt;
        &lt;artifactId&gt;commons-net&lt;/artifactId&gt;
        &lt;version&gt;3.3&lt;/version&gt;
      &lt;/dependency&gt;
      &lt;dependency&gt;
        &lt;groupId&gt;com.microsoft.azure.cognitiveservices&lt;/groupId&gt;
        &lt;artifactId&gt;azure-cognitiveservices-websearch&lt;/artifactId&gt;
        &lt;version&gt;1.0.1&lt;/version&gt;
      &lt;/dependency&gt;
    &lt;/dependencies&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am new to this and seem to be stumbling through this assignment. I have been following a tutorial from microsoft's website. Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
  
  <p>Thank you in advance for your time.</p>