Better/easier way to override plugin dependencies
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Key: MNG-3311
URL: http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MNG-3311
Project: Maven 2
Issue Type: Improvement
Components: Dependencies, Plugins and Lifecycle
Affects Versions: 2.0.8
Reporter: Steve Ebersole
Currently, the only way to override the version of a dependency used by a
plugin is to "fully specify the dependency" in the
build/plugins/plugin/dependencies section. This is difficult for cases where
the project itself depends on said dependency as well. Take the case of the
antlr-maven-plugin at codehaus (as this is where I experienced the problem).
The plugin is used to generate parsers as part of the build using Antlr. The
project, itself, would also need to define Antlr as a dependency since it would
then have a compile and runtime dependency on Antlr. So, at the very least, we
end up with two definitions of the Antlr dependency.
For background, defining the same dep twice is not that big of a deal. I
"dealt with it" by using a property for the Antlr version to use, and then
referencing that in the dependency definitions. Where it started to get very
unsavory for me was when I started moving my "base line" deps into a
<dependencyManagement/> section, and especially when that
<dependencyManagement/> was defined in the parent pom. The issue I ran into
was that I could no longer use a property (if I defined it in the parent, it is
not inherited into the child where i need to define the plugin). The next
thing I tried that I "reasonably" thought would work was to define the
<dependencyManagement/> section in the parent, and in the child to define the
dependencies/dependency without the <version/> tag and then to try the same in
the build/plugins/plugin/dependencies/dependency section. However that is
apparently not valid in the build/plugins/plugin/dependencies/dependency
(org.apache.maven.BuildFailureException: For artifact {antlr:antlr:null:jar}:
The version cannot be empty.)
I am not exactly sure what the "best" option is. I certainly believe that the
following should work (which is what I described above):
<dependencyManagement>
<dependency>
<groupId>antlr</groupId>
<artifactId>antlr</artifactId>
<version>2.7.6</version>
</dependency>
</dependencyManagement>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>antlr-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>${antlrPluginVersion}</version>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>antlr</groupId>
<artifactId>antlr</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
...
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
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