Executing commands using Maven
You can use the Maven Exec Plugin bound to the install phase.
In the snippet below, the commant ping with the argument 8.8.8.8 will be executed every time you do a mvn install:
<project>
...
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<version>1.2.1</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>My Command Runner</id>
<phase>install</phase>
<goals>
<goal>exec</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<executable>ping</executable>
<arguments>
<argument>8.8.8.8</argument>
</arguments>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
...
</project>
And that's it.
Update:
I see now what you really having trouble with is executing zipalign, not an arbitrary command. For that, there are two ways.
Using the built-in zipalign of the maven-android-plugin
As of release 2.5.0 of the Android Maven Plugin the zipalign goal is part of the plugin. To activate simply add the goal zipalign as an execution (e.g. to the package phase) and set the skip parameter in the plugin configuration to false:
<zipalign><skip>false</skip></zipalign>
Full <plugin> tag example:
<plugin>
<groupId>com.jayway.maven.plugins.android.generation2</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-android-plugin</artifactId>
<inherited>true</inherited>
<configuration>
<sign>
<debug>false</debug>
</sign>
<zipalign>
<verbose>true</verbose>
<inputApk>${project.build.directory}/${project.artifactId}.apk</inputApk>
<outputApk>${project.build.directory}/${project.artifactId}-signed-aligned.apk
</outputApk>
</zipalign>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>alignApk</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>zipalign</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
Sources:
Zipalign using Exec-Maven Plugin
The code below will bind the functionality of zip aligning to the package phase, overwriting previous zip aligned file without asking.
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.1.1</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>zipalign</id>
<goals>
<goal>exec</goal>
</goals>
<phase>package</phase>
<configuration>
<executable>${ANDROID_HOME}/tools/zipalign</executable>
<arguments>
<argument>-f</argument>
<argument>4</argument>
<argument>target/${project.build.finalName}.apk</argument>
<argument>target/${project.build.finalName}-zipped.apk</argument>
</arguments>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
Please note that this profile has to be added to the pom for the actual APK. You can't add it to a parent pom. The reason for this is that it uses the Maven property that defines the artefact name (project.build.finalName).