Maven 2 & 3

Improve "missing dependency" error message when _maven.repositories contains other repository ids than requested

Details

  • Type: Improvement Improvement
  • Status: Reopened Reopened
  • Priority: Major Major
  • Resolution: Unresolved
  • Affects Version/s: 3.0.2, 3.0.3, 3.0.4
  • Fix Version/s: 3.1.x
  • Component/s: None
  • Labels:
    None
  • Complexity:
    Intermediate
  • Number of attachments :
    1

Description

Based on a discussion on the users list [1], Maven 3 has changed how it resolves artifacts from local repositories. Unfortunately, when "conflicts" arise (GAV is cached in local repo, but restricted to some repository ids, and actual POM has no matching repository id declared), Maven just tells the user that the artifact could not be resolved.

This leads to confusion from users who find the .jar files in their local repository without knowing this restriction feature: they just get frustrated and complain that "maven sucks".

It would be good if Maven was updated with some improved error messages along the lines of:

"The (GAV) artifact was found in your local repository, but came from remote repository "xxx": either configure this in your pom with (insert sample XML block in error message), or in your "yyy" mirror."

The "mirror" section of the error message should be included if the current ~/.m2/settings.xml declares a mirror. By improving the messages here we can help the users move on to building software, rather than pulling out their hair

[1] http://maven.40175.n5.nabble.com/Maven-3-maven-repositories-and-lastUpdated-td4927537.html

Issue Links

is related to

Improvement - An improvement or enhancement to an existing feature or task. MNG-5457 show repository id when downloading

  • Major - Major loss of function.
  • Open - The issue is open and ready for the assignee to start work on it.
relates to

Bug - A problem which impairs or prevents the functions of the product. MNG-5289 -Dmaven.repo.local not honored

  • Major - Major loss of function.
  • Closed - The issue is considered finished, the resolution is correct. Issues which are not closed can be reopened.

Improvement - An improvement or enhancement to an existing feature or task. MNG-5319 Better formatting of "missing dependencies" error message - add newlines

  • Critical - Crashes, loss of data, severe memory leak.
  • Open - The issue is open and ready for the assignee to start work on it.

Improvement - An improvement or enhancement to an existing feature or task. MNG-5181 New resolution from local repository is very confusing

  • Major - Major loss of function.
  • Closed - The issue is considered finished, the resolution is correct. Issues which are not closed can be reopened.

Activity

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Tim Molter added a comment -

Improving this error message would be a very quick change and would save people like me literally hours of frustration. I'm sure this issue turns people away from Maven. I blogged about this issue here: http://obscuredclarity.blogspot.com/2012/05/using-maven-offline.html, in hopes other people will find the solution faster. Improving this error message is a no-brainer.

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Tim Molter added a comment - Improving this error message would be a very quick change and would save people like me literally hours of frustration. I'm sure this issue turns people away from Maven. I blogged about this issue here: http://obscuredclarity.blogspot.com/2012/05/using-maven-offline.html , in hopes other people will find the solution faster. Improving this error message is a no-brainer.
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Herve Boutemy added a comment -

Improving this error message would be a very quick change

do you have a patch? I can apply it

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Herve Boutemy added a comment - Improving this error message would be a very quick change do you have a patch? I can apply it
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Joseph Walton added a comment -

Aether doesn't make it easy to expose this information back to Maven. I've attached a simple patch to Sonatype Aether to log when this is encountered.

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Joseph Walton added a comment - Aether doesn't make it easy to expose this information back to Maven. I've attached a simple patch to Sonatype Aether to log when this is encountered.
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Devin Reid added a comment -

Just got bit by this one. I have using '-Dmaven.repo.local' option to create portable builds for working on non-networked (default settings.xml on those boxes) computers and spent about an hour scratching my head as to why this didn't work with Maven3. After deleting all the _maven.repositories it finally worked. This new 'feature' really introduces some headaches for certain uses of maven3.

So +1 for improving the error message.

bonus points if this feature could be disabled for offline "mvn -o" builds entirely.

Show
Devin Reid added a comment - Just got bit by this one. I have using '-Dmaven.repo.local' option to create portable builds for working on non-networked (default settings.xml on those boxes) computers and spent about an hour scratching my head as to why this didn't work with Maven3. After deleting all the _maven.repositories it finally worked. This new 'feature' really introduces some headaches for certain uses of maven3. So +1 for improving the error message. bonus points if this feature could be disabled for offline "mvn -o" builds entirely.
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Olivier Lamy added a comment -

option to disable that and disable it when building offline ?

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Olivier Lamy added a comment - option to disable that and disable it when building offline ?
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Olivier Lamy added a comment -

pushed
can be desactivated using:

  • new cli option: slrm,-simple-local-repository-manager
  • or in MAVEN_OPTS: -Dmaven.simpleLocalRepoMan=true
Show
Olivier Lamy added a comment - pushed can be desactivated using: new cli option: slrm, -simple-local-repository-manager or in MAVEN_OPTS: -Dmaven.simpleLocalRepoMan=true
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Olivier Lamy added a comment -

will be available here: https://builds.apache.org/view/M-R/view/Maven/job/maven-3.x/
build #368

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Olivier Lamy added a comment - will be available here: https://builds.apache.org/view/M-R/view/Maven/job/maven-3.x/ build #368
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Arnaud Heritier added a comment -

Reopen as there is a discussion in progress about the proposed fix : http://maven.40175.n5.nabble.com/Pain-with-MNG-5181-maven-repositories-td5743021.html

Show
Arnaud Heritier added a comment - Reopen as there is a discussion in progress about the proposed fix : http://maven.40175.n5.nabble.com/Pain-with-MNG-5181-maven-repositories-td5743021.html
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Jeff MAURY added a comment -

The main problem with this "feature" is that it is not documented thus I
can't explain the real reason why Maven download several times released
artifacts and this causes members of the Maven bashing group to grow

See http://maven.40175.n5.nabble.com/Pain-with-MNG-5181-maven-repositories-tp5743021p5745327.html

Show
Jeff MAURY added a comment - The main problem with this "feature" is that it is not documented thus I can't explain the real reason why Maven download several times released artifacts and this causes members of the Maven bashing group to grow See http://maven.40175.n5.nabble.com/Pain-with-MNG-5181-maven-repositories-tp5743021p5745327.html
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Robert Scholte added a comment -

options have been renamed to --llr, -legacy-local-repository and -Dmaven.legacyLocalRepository

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Robert Scholte added a comment - options have been renamed to --llr, -legacy-local-repository and -Dmaven.legacyLocalRepository
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Stephen Connolly added a comment -

Thinking about this some more, what users probably want is a way to mark specific repository ids as offline.

Most of the cases where -Dmaven.legacyLocalRepository is required are, IMHO, where the user is not connected to the corporate VPN and so resolution against the corporate repo should not be attempted because it is "offline"

The "legacy" behaviour is really a global switch for all repositories, much better IMHO is

-Dmaven.repositories.offline=central,java.net2,...

or

-Dmaven.repository.offline.central
-Dmaven.repository.offline.java.net2

Now it may not be possible to implement this way with the current Aether, but I think this is more the solution we should be heading towards.

Another way would be to have a repository-status file on disk that contained the list of repository id's and their on-line/off-line status... or even an extension to allow querying... so that users could plug a vpn status detector into their maven installation and have auto-just-works

Show
Stephen Connolly added a comment - Thinking about this some more, what users probably want is a way to mark specific repository ids as offline. Most of the cases where -Dmaven.legacyLocalRepository is required are, IMHO, where the user is not connected to the corporate VPN and so resolution against the corporate repo should not be attempted because it is "offline" The "legacy" behaviour is really a global switch for all repositories, much better IMHO is -Dmaven.repositories.offline=central,java.net2,... or -Dmaven.repository.offline.central -Dmaven.repository.offline.java.net2 Now it may not be possible to implement this way with the current Aether, but I think this is more the solution we should be heading towards. Another way would be to have a repository-status file on disk that contained the list of repository id's and their on-line/off-line status... or even an extension to allow querying... so that users could plug a vpn status detector into their maven installation and have auto-just-works
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Devin Reid added a comment -

When I'm using a corporate repository, all maven artifact resolution gets proxied through the corporate repository so the ability to turn off individual repositories by id is of limited utility to users with that workflow because they only have one repository id (configured as a mirror with <mirrorOf>*</mirrorOf> in settings.xml).

What -Dmaven.legacyLocalRepository restores, for me at least, is the ability to stage an offline build for a project on a connected box and then move the project and the local repository to another box with no network access (and likely no maven settings configuration) and still be able to build the project in offline mode.

Show
Devin Reid added a comment - When I'm using a corporate repository, all maven artifact resolution gets proxied through the corporate repository so the ability to turn off individual repositories by id is of limited utility to users with that workflow because they only have one repository id (configured as a mirror with <mirrorOf>*</mirrorOf> in settings.xml). What -Dmaven.legacyLocalRepository restores, for me at least, is the ability to stage an offline build for a project on a connected box and then move the project and the local repository to another box with no network access (and likely no maven settings configuration) and still be able to build the project in offline mode.
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Stephen Connolly added a comment -

Your corporate repository has an ID, so when off-VPN you would just go 

-Dmaven.repository.offline.corp-mirror

And then all your corporate artifacts will not be attempted to re-download... oh that repo is missing... oh fail the build.

-Dmaven.legacyLocalRepository is just a hack on top of a hack, what I am pointing is a solution to the first hack that removes the need for the second.

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Stephen Connolly added a comment - Your corporate repository has an ID, so when off-VPN you would just go -Dmaven.repository.offline.corp-mirror And then all your corporate artifacts will not be attempted to re-download... oh that repo is missing... oh fail the build. -Dmaven.legacyLocalRepository is just a hack on top of a hack, what I am pointing is a solution to the first hack that removes the need for the second.
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Ondrej Zizka added a comment - - edited

Stephen, you hit the nail on the head - it's about VPN in all our cases. I like the idea to be able to switch on/off the repos individually by id.

Show
Ondrej Zizka added a comment - - edited Stephen, you hit the nail on the head - it's about VPN in all our cases. I like the idea to be able to switch on/off the repos individually by id.

People

  • Assignee:
    Olivier Lamy
    Reporter:
    Mark Derricutt
Vote (32)
Watch (27)

Dates

  • Created:
    Updated: