What do you mean by a "regular repository"? If you are using a filesystem on a server and deploying to there with mvn deploy, you virtually have an inhouse repository like archiva offers, without the management like snapshot purging, access control (who may read/write), search for artifacts. Also, Archiva works as a mirror proxy, so each artifact you look up on the archiva repository, which isn't found, Archiva will pull it from central (or any other configured repository) and store it locally for other developers, who may need that artifact, so your internet connection and central are less used.
So in short, it offers a "few" extra options. ;) Hth, Nick S. -----Original Message----- From: Peter Horlock [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Fri 4/11/2008 17:38 To: users@maven.apache.org Subject: maven archiva vs. maven repo Hi, could anyone explain to me the difference between maven archiva and a regular maven repository? The explanation I found on the site was pretty short - "With Archiva, you can share artifacts with other developers..." Isn't that exactly what the regular maven repository does? So why / when / what for should I use Archiva?? Thanks in advance, Peter