CSharp Plugins-Version overriding and transitive dependencies
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Key: MNG-2527
URL: http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MNG-2527
Project: Maven 2
Issue Type: Bug
Components: Multiple Language Support, Sandbox
Environment: Windows XP
Reporter: James Carpenter
Further experience with the maven csharp plugins has revealed an interesting
side affect of the current way in which maven built csharp libraries are used.
As mentioned in MNG-2369, the csharp libraries built by maven have the version
number in their name.
Assume the following library heiarchy: A depends upon B which depends upon C
(A->B->C).
Lets assume the initial versioned dependencies are as follows:
A_1.0 (explict dependency upon B_1.0)
B_1.0 (explict dependency upon C_1.0)
C_1.0
Now lets assume C has changed to add some new feature needed by a new version
of A. Lets assume that although A needs the new feature of C, the interfaces
from C used B have not changed and hence no code changes are necessary to B.
So we now try (Will not work with CSharp even though Java code would be fine):
A_2.0 (explict dependency upon B_1.0, and C_2.0) Note: 2.0 version of C
superceeds 1.0 in typical mvn fashion
B_1.0 (explict dependency upon C_1.0)
C_2.0
This new configuration fails when the unit tests for A_2.0 are run. When the
unit tests in A_2.0 are run we see that B_1.0 is looking for C_1.0 which
doesn't exist as C_2.0 has taken its place in the dependency list. Remember
that B_1.0 is looking for C_1.0 because the assembly meta-data in B_1.0 says it
needs an assembly named C_1.0.dll.
If none of the assemblies are strongly-named (assembly meta-data contains
digital signatures for each dependency) it would be sufficient if the
dependencies within the assembly meta-data didn't contain the version numbers.
(Such a change would have synergies with whatever was done for 3rd party
libraries.)
Alternatively, I think one can probably include all versions mentioned by any
of the dependencies. In this case it is important to maintain version numbers
as part of the dependency names as doing so allows them to co-exist in the same
directory. (Could be problematic for 3rd party dlls without version numbers in
their name.)
All of the above solutions require a change to the csharp maven support in some
fashion. The only solution available today is to create a new release of B
which uses the newer version of C.
A_2.0 (explict dependency upon B_2.0)
B_2.0 (explict dependency upon C_2.0)
C_2.0
The inability to override versions is both an advantage and disadvantage. As
you can see there the advantage to the current solution is that B is now known
to work with C_2.0. The disadvantage is one must re-release B just to get the
updated C version.
Summary: Version overriding with CSharp dependencies doesn't work out. A
general solution to the problem is either impossible or at least awkward. The
issue stems from the decision by MS to support digitally signed libraries, and
the particulars of the current mvn csharp plugin behavior.
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