RESOLVED: Add parent pom for samples in assembly package. Now you can unzip and (cd samples/spring-batch-samples; mvn test). Cool.

dist/pom.xml

@@ -51,6 +51,24 @@
 					</execution>
 				</executions>
 			</plugin>
+			<plugin>
+				<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+				<artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
+				<executions>
+					<execution>
+						<id>copy-parent-pom</id>
+						<phase>generate-sources</phase>
+						<configuration>
+							<tasks>
+								<copy file="../pom.xml" todir="target"/>
+							</tasks>
+						</configuration>
+						<goals>
+							<goal>run</goal>
+						</goals>
+					</execution>
+				</executions>
+			</plugin>
 		</plugins>
 	</build>
 

dist/src/assembly/docs.xml

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
         <fileSet>
             <includes>
                 <include>license.txt</include>
-                <include>notice.txt</include>
+                <include>notice.txt</include>
             </includes>
         </fileSet>
         <lineEnding>unix</lineEnding>

dist/src/assembly/no-dependencies.xml

@@ -44,12 +44,16 @@
 					samples/${artifactId}
 				</outputDirectoryMapping>
 				<fileSets>
-					<fileSet>
+					<fileSet>
+						<includes>
+							<include>pom.xml</include>
+						</includes>
 						<excludes>
 							<exclude>bin/**</exclude>
 							<exclude>target/**</exclude>
 							<exclude>**/clover.license</exclude>
-							<exclude>*.xml</exclude>
+							<exclude>*.xml</exclude>
+							<exclude>derby*/**</exclude>
 						</excludes>
 					</fileSet>
 				</fileSets>

dist/src/assembly/parent.xml

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<component>
+	<fileSets>
+		<fileSet>
+			<directory>target</directory>
+			<outputDirectory>samples</outputDirectory>
+			<includes>
+				<include>pom.xml</include>
+			</includes>
+		</fileSet>
+		<lineEnding>unix</lineEnding>
+	</fileSets>
+</component>

dist/src/assembly/with-dependencies.xml

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 	</formats>
 	<componentDescriptors>
 		<componentDescriptor>src/assembly/docs.xml</componentDescriptor>
+		<componentDescriptor>src/assembly/parent.xml</componentDescriptor>
 	</componentDescriptors>
 	<includeBaseDirectory>true</includeBaseDirectory>
 	<moduleSets>