Suppose I have a "multiproject" with 3 subprojects, called "api", "ri" and "tck", each with a current version of "1.0-b1-SNAPSHOT". The dependencies are setup as follows: ri-1.0-b1-SNAPSHOT -> api-1.0-b1-SNAPSHOT tck-1.0-b1-SNAPSHOT -> api-1.0-b1-SNAPSHOT When I use multiproject plugin to build, the dependencies are not picked up as expected. > maven multiproject:artifact Starting the reactor... Our processing order: api ri tck +----------------------------------------

Executing multiproject:artifact-callback api

Memory: 4M/6M +---------------------------------------- ... [echo] Running jar:jar for api ...

+----------------------------------------

Executing multiproject:artifact-callback Oracle EL RI

Memory: 7M/9M +----------------------------------------

BUILD FAILED File...... [maven.repo.local]/plugins/maven-multiproject-plugin-1.0/ Element... maven:reactor Line...... 191 Column.... 9 The build cannot continue because of the following unsatisfied dependency: api-1.0-b1-SNAPSHOT.jar This is happening because the api artifact is not present in the local maven repository and cannot therefore be resolved by the ri project. It would be much more convenient if this multiproject:artifact goal worked without needing to install artifacts into the local repository. The reactor has already figured out the build order based on the dependency chain, so it is already quite clear which project dependencies are satisfied by other projects being built during the same multiproject:artifact execution. These specific dependencies could be overridden by multiproject during a subproject build, and instead point to the local target area of the corresponding peer project. So, for example, the ri subproject ${pom} processed by multiproject:artifact-callback could be modified to point to "${basedir}/../api/target/api-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar" for the api dependency, instead of pointing at the local maven repository. This would have 3 distinct advantages. 1. multiproject:artifact builds would succeed when the local maven repository does not contain the peer subproject dependencies. 2. multiproject:artifact builds would succeed when the local maven repository contains stale peer subproject dependencies previously downloaded from the remote maven repository. 3. multiproject:artifact builds would succeed even for peer subproject SNAPSHOT dependencies which would otherwise be overwritten in the local maven repository when the stale api SNAPSHOT jar is re-downloaded from the remote maven repository, during the build of the ri subproject. Note. This strategy would also allow multiproject:install to work for 1.0-b1-SNAPSHOT version, without forcing an offline build. Requiring the build to be offline in this case is inconvenient because other dependencies cannot be downloaded on demand to the local maven repository.