CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javamavennetbeans
Naman
Naman

Reputation: 2373

Maven downloading from central repository

I am on Netbeans and don't know Maven much. Whenever I import, open some Maven project, it starts donwloading something from some central repository, sometimes huge. It downloads things in .m2\repository.cache\m2e. I have limited bandwidth and don't want this. How to stop this? I have set Options>Java>Maven>Dependency Download Strategy to never. Also tried mvn -o install and mvn -o for offline. Not solved.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 9129

Answers (3)

mikołak
mikołak

Reputation: 9705

Maven has a very modular architecture. That means the the thing you get when you download the Maven distribution is in reality small core functionality.

The rest is downloaded from a Maven artifact repository, like Maven Central (which is the default repo).

Note that this applies not only for dependencies (the library your project uses), but also your plugins (i.e. the stuff that compiles, packages, and otherwise builds the projects). Hence the large number of downloads.

Like the other answers said, if you don't delete your local repository it should eventually contain all the artifacts (dependencies and plugins) you need without re-downloading. The only exception are SNAPHSOT dependencies which can get re-downloaded periodically, depending what's in your POM and settings.

Ultimately, you have two possibilities:

  1. If you have access to a higher-bandwith connection somewhere, you can build the projects while using it, and your local repo will still store the needed artifacts.
  2. If you have several computers/configurations behind a local network, you can set up a Maven repository manager, like Nexus or Artifactory, and use it as a local mirror. Note that those still need to download the artifacts at first as well.

But there isn't much else you can do. "Maven downloading the Internet" is, unfortunately in your case, by design.

Upvotes: 0

Rakesh Bhalani
Rakesh Bhalani

Reputation: 678

Maven will download all the dependency only once to the local repository and not again and again. Weather you have limited or unlimited bandwidth you have to download it to execute your project.

Upvotes: 0

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

Reputation: 75376

The Maven way is to get you what the project says it needs, but you have not already downloaded to your local repository.

The huge file is the list of what is actually available in Maven Central, and for some reason unknown to me it is downloaded on a regular basis. If you do it once, it should be kept for future sessions.

Upvotes: 1

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