inconsistency mess building time-stamed snapshots

Building time-stamped snapshots with multiproject:install-snapshot (same applies to multiproject:deploy-snapshot) results in unreliable versions if you use versioned snapshots. The install-snapshot goal will build artifacts without the version information using just -SNAPSHOT and renames them to a timed version, but any dependent artifact will use later on -<version>-SNAPSHOT in its dependencies, that were not even build and may be downloaded in an buggy version from an internal repo.

Example (cut down to the interesting parts):

====== %< =======
$ maven multiproject:install-snapshot
__ __

Starting the reactor...
Our processing order:
nanocontainer
nanocontainer-servlet
nanocontainer-nanoweb
nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb
+----------------------------------------

multiproject:install-snapshot-callback:
[echo] Running jar:install-snapshot for nanocontainer
jar:snapshot:
[echo] Building snapshot JAR: nanocontainer-20040609.071430
<...>
jar:jar:
[jar] Building jar: C:\Work\Apps\Codehaus\pico\java\nanocontainer\target\nanocontainer-20040609.071430.jar

jar:install-snapshot:
[copy] Copying 1 file to C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\jos\.maven\repository\nanocontainer\jars
[copy] Copying 1 file to C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\jos\.maven\repository\nanocontainer\jars
+----------------------------------------

build:end:

build:start:

multiproject:install-snapshot-callback:
[echo] Running jar:install-snapshot for nanocontainer-servlet
jar:snapshot:
[echo] Building snapshot JAR: nanocontainer-servlet-20040609.071505
<...>
jar:jar:
[jar] Building jar: C:\Work\Apps\Codehaus\pico\java\servlet\target\nanocontainer-servlet-20040609.071505.jar
jar:install-snapshot:
[copy] Copying 1 file to C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\jos\.maven\repository\nanocontainer\jars
[copy] Copying 1 file to C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\jos\.maven\repository\nanocontainer\jars
+----------------------------------------

build:end:

build:start:

multiproject:install-snapshot-callback:
[echo] Running jar:install-snapshot for nanocontainer-nanoweb
jar:snapshot:
[echo] Building snapshot JAR: nanocontainer-nanoweb-20040609.071603
<...>
jar:jar:
[jar] Building jar: C:\Work\Apps\Codehaus\pico\java\nanoweb\target\nanocontainer-nanoweb-20040609.071603.jar
jar:install-snapshot:
[copy] Copying 1 file to C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\jos\.maven\repository\nanocontainer\jars
[copy] Copying 1 file to C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\jos\.maven\repository\nanocontainer\jars
+----------------------------------------

build:end:

build:start:

multiproject:install-snapshot-callback:
[echo] Running war:install-snapshot for nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb
<...>
war:webapp:
[echo] Assembling webapp nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb
[mkdir] Created dir: C:\Work\Apps\Codehaus\pico\java\sample-nanoweb\target\nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb\WEB-INF\tld
[copy] Copying 1 file to C:\Work\Apps\Codehaus\pico\java\sample-nanoweb\target\nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb\WEB-INF

war:war:
[echo] Building WAR nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb
[jar] Building jar: C:\Work\Apps\Codehaus\pico\java\sample-nanoweb\target\nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb.war
Installing snapshot of:'C:\Work\Apps\Codehaus\pico\java\sample-nanoweb/target/nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb.war''
Copying: from 'C:\Work\Apps\Codehaus\pico\java\sample-nanoweb\target\nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb.war' to: 'C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\jos\.maven\repository\nanocontainer\wars\nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb-SNAPSHOT.war'
Copying: from 'C:\Work\Apps\Codehaus\pico\java\sample-nanoweb\target\nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb.war' to: 'C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\jos\.maven\repository\nanocontainer\wars\nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb-20040609.071707.war'
Copying: from 'C:\Work\Apps\Codehaus\pico\java\sample-nanoweb\project.xml' to: 'C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\jos\.maven\repository\nanocontainer\poms\nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb-SNAPSHOT.pom'
Copying: from 'C:\Work\Apps\Codehaus\pico\java\sample-nanoweb\project.xml' to: 'C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\jos\.maven\repository\nanocontainer\poms\nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb-20040609.071707.pom'

BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 3 minutes 36 seconds
Finished at: Wed Jun 09 09:17:49 CEST 2004

====== %< =======

$ jar tf ~/.maven/repository/nanocontainer/wars/nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb-20040609.071707.war
META-INF/
META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
WEB-INF/
WEB-INF/classes/
WEB-INF/classes/org/
WEB-INF/classes/org/nanocontainer/
WEB-INF/classes/org/nanocontainer/sample/
WEB-INF/classes/org/nanocontainer/sample/nanoweb/
WEB-INF/lib/
WEB-INF/tld/
game.groovy
game_input.vm
WEB-INF/classes/org/nanocontainer/sample/nanoweb/NumberToGuess.class
WEB-INF/lib/asm-1.4.1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/commons-collections-2.1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/groovy-1.0-beta-4.jar
WEB-INF/lib/nanocontainer-1.0-beta-1-SNAPSHOT.jar
WEB-INF/lib/nanocontainer-nanoweb-1.0-beta-1-SNAPSHOT.jar
WEB-INF/lib/nanocontainer-servlet-1.0-beta-1-SNAPSHOT.jar
WEB-INF/lib/ognl-2.5.1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/picocontainer-1.0.jar
WEB-INF/lib/velocity-1.4-rc1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/velocity-tools-view-1.0.jar
WEB-INF/web.xml

====== %< =======

$ ls -l ~/.maven/repository/nanocontainer/wars
total 8822
rwx-----+ 1 jos mkgroup 1246342 Jun 9 09:17 nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb-20040609.071707.war
rwx-----+ 1 jos mkgroup 1246342 Jun 9 09:17 nanocontainer-sample-nanoweb-SNAPSHOT.war
$ ls -l ~/.maven/repository/nanocontainer/jars
rwx-----+ 1 jos mkgroup 54740 Jun 9 08:42 nanocontainer-1.0-beta-1-SNAPSHOT.jar
rwx-----+ 1 jos mkgroup 54740 Jun 9 09:14 nanocontainer-20040609.071430.jar
rwx-----+ 1 jos mkgroup 54740 Jun 9 09:14 nanocontainer-SNAPSHOT.jar
rwx-----+ 1 jos mkgroup 9398 Jun 9 08:43 nanocontainer-nanoweb-1.0-beta-1-SNAPSHOT.jar
rwx-----+ 1 jos mkgroup 9398 Jun 9 09:16 nanocontainer-nanoweb-20040609.071603.jar
rwx-----+ 1 jos mkgroup 9398 Jun 9 09:16 nanocontainer-nanoweb-SNAPSHOT.jar
rwx-----+ 1 jos mkgroup 18562 Jun 9 08:42 nanocontainer-servlet-1.0-beta-1-SNAPSHOT.jar
rwx-----+ 1 jos mkgroup 13445 Jun 9 09:15 nanocontainer-servlet-20040609.071505.jar
rwx-----+ 1 jos mkgroup 13445 Jun 9 09:15 nanocontainer-servlet-SNAPSHOT.jar

====== %< =======

The build did neither create one single time-stamp (optimal) nor use the time-stamed versions (quite optimal) nor the created snapshots (still valid), but the uncontrolled and downloaded versioned snapshots and they were even included and delivered in the war.

The behaviour could also be changed to create time-stamped snapshots, that keep the version and just replace the -SNAPSHOT part. This would also allow time-stamed snapshots from different branches of a project.

Regards,
Jörg