Problems with exact versions in dependencyManagement

[Will Horn <wi...@gmail.com>]

I use dependencyManagement in a root pom to handle all the artifact versions
for a complex project.  From the documentation [1] and [2], I see that 

<version>1.0.0</version>

is a soft version and 

<version>[1.0.0]</version>

is an exact version.  An exact version seems much preferable to a soft
version.  I would like to know exactly which versions of different third
party artifacts are being used in my application.

However, exact versions have caused quite a few headaches.  For one, many
artifacts in the central repo don't have correct metadata.xml and thus maven
won't resolve [1.0.0] even though the artifact is there ([3] is such an
example).

I just created http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MNG-4159 because
DefaultDependencyTreeBuilder throws and NPE when used against a project that
has exact versions in its dependencyManagement.

Exact versions seem to be really buggy and it seems to be because no one
uses them!  Is there another way to manage versions so I can be sure maven
is using exactly the one I want?

[2] has a comment about exact versions "We point this out to make you aware
of the option, but use it sparingly and only when really needed. The
preferred way to resolve this is via dependencyManagement."  I don't see how
dependencyManagement addresses this.

Thanks,
Will


[1]
http://docs.codehaus.org/display/MAVEN/Dependency+Mediation+and+Conflict+Resolution#DependencyMediationandConflictResolution-DependencyVersionRanges
[2]
http://www.sonatype.com/books/maven-book/reference/pom-relationships-sect-version-ranges.html
[3]
http://repo2.maven.org/maven2/net/java/dev/glazedlists/glazedlists_java15/maven-metadata.xml
only lists 1.6.1 even though 1.7.0 and 1.8.0 are in the repo.  An dependency
on glazedlists [1.8.0] will fail to resolve.
-- 
View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Problems-with-exact-versions-in-dependencyManagement-tp23508559p23508559.html
Sent from the Maven - Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@maven.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@maven.apache.org