Maven - copy all the dependencies of a project and and transitive dependencies

Question

I’m new to maven. (I have searched for hours for the answer but without luck. mvn dependency:copy-dependencies do not solve my problem) I need to copy all the dependencies of a project (in the form of jars) and if one of my jars depend on another artifact copy that artifact as well.

Example project1 pom.xml:

    <?xml version="1.0"?>
    <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
        <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    
        <groupId>project1</groupId>
        <artifactId> project1.utils</artifactId>
        <version>1.0</version>
        <name> project1. utils </name>
    
        <properties>
            <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        </properties>
    
        <dependencies>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>project2</groupId>
                <artifactId>project2.artifact</artifactId>
                <version>2.0</version>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    
        <build>
            <plugins>
                <plugin>
                    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                    <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
                    <version>2.4</version>
                    <configuration>
                        <archive>
                            <index>true</index>
                            <manifestEntries>
                                <Build-Number>${buildNumber}</Build-Number>
                                <Revision>${Revision}</Revision>
                            </manifestEntries>
                        </archive>
                    </configuration>
                </plugin>
            </plugins>
        </build>
    </project>

“project1” have a dependency of project2.artifact.jar. When I use “mvn dependency:copy-dependencies”, I get project2.artifact.jar but I do not get project3.artifact.jar that is a dependency of “project2”.

I do not have the pom of project2, but it is installed in my local repository.

How can I get all the dependencies of project 1 including the second jar (“project3.artifact.jar”)?

Pom of project2 would look something like this, but I don't have it when I go to a client. So I install project2.artifact.jar, project3.artifact.jar manually using "mvn install".

Project2 pom.xml:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>project2</groupId>
    <artifactId>project2.artifact</artifactId>
    <version>2.0</version>
    <name>project2.artifact</name>

    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>project3</groupId>
            <artifactId>project3.artifact</artifactId>
            <version>3.0</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

<build>
<plugins>

            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.4</version>
                <configuration>
                    <archive>
                        <index>true</index>
                        <manifestEntries>
                            <Build-Number>${buildNumber}</Build-Number>
                            <Revision>${Revision}</Revision>
                        </manifestEntries>
                    </archive>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
</plugins>

</build>
</project>

Answer 1

Please use the latest version of dependency plugin:

mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:2.10:copy-dependencies

If not works please check:

mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:2.10:tree
mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:2.10:list

copy-dependency goal copies the same artifacts which is resolved and displayed by tree and list goals.

For testing I prepare project3 pom.xml:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>project3</groupId>
    <artifactId>project3.artifact</artifactId>
    <version>3.0</version>

    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>
</project>

I have such directory structure:

pr1
   pom.xml - from question

pr2
   pom.xml - from question

pr3
   pom.xml - as shown above

Now I do:

cd pr3
mvn clean innstall

cd ../pr2
mvn clean innstall
mvn dependency:tree

dependency:tree output:

[INFO] --- maven-dependency-plugin:2.8:tree (default-cli) @ project2.artifact ---
[INFO] project2:project2.artifact:jar:2.0
[INFO] \- project3:project3.artifact:jar:3.0:compile

So project2 depends on project3 next:

cd ../pr1
mvn clean install
mvn dependency:tree

dependency:tree in project1 output:

[INFO] --- maven-dependency-plugin:2.8:tree (default-cli) @ project1.utils ---
[INFO] project1:project1.utils:jar:1.0
[INFO] \- project2:project2.artifact:jar:2.0:compile
[INFO]    \- project3:project3.artifact:jar:3.0:compile

So it is also ok.

And now copy:

mvn dependency:copy-dependencies

With result:

[INFO] --- maven-dependency-plugin:2.8:copy-dependencies (default-cli) @ project1.utils ---
[INFO] Copying project3.artifact-3.0.jar to ...\pr1\target\dependency\project3.artifact-3.0.jar
[INFO] Copying project2.artifact-2.0.jar to ...\pr1\target\dependency\project2.artifact-2.0.jar

If you also want to copy project1 artifact add it to dependency in project1 pom.xml

...
<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>project2</groupId>
        <artifactId>project2.artifact</artifactId>
        <version>2.0</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>project1</groupId>
        <artifactId>project1.utils</artifactId>
        <version>1.0</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>
...

Now:

mvn clean dependency:copy-dependencies we have:

[INFO] --- maven-dependency-plugin:2.8:copy-dependencies (default-cli) @ project1.utils ---
[INFO] Copying project3.artifact-3.0.jar to ...\pr1\target\dependency\project3.artifact-3.0.jar
[INFO] Copying project2.artifact-2.0.jar to ...\pr1\target\dependency\project2.artifact-2.0.jar
[INFO] Copying project1.utils-1.0.jar to ...\pr1\target\dependency\project1.utils-1.0.jar