Maven add a dependency to a jar by relative path

Question

I have a proprietary jar that I want to add to my pom as a dependency   But I don t want to add it to a repository  The reason is that I want my usual maven commands such as mvn compile  etc  to work out of the box   Without demanding from the developers a to add it to some repository by themselves    I want the jar to be in a 3rdparty lib in source control  and link to it by relative path from the pom xml file   Can this be done  How

User · Accepted Answer

I want the jar to be in a 3rdparty lib in source control, and link to it by relative path from the pom.xml file.

If you really want this (understand, if you can't use a corporate repository), then my advice would be to use a "file repository" local to the project and to not use a system scoped dependency. The system scoped should be avoided, such dependencies don't work well in many situation (e.g. in assembly), they cause more troubles than benefits.

So, instead, declare a repository local to the project:

<repositories>
  <repository>
    <id>my-local-repo</id>
    <url>file://${project.basedir}/my-repo</url>
  </repository>
</repositories>

Install your third party lib in there using install:install-file with the localRepositoryPath parameter:

~~mvn install:install-file -Dfile=<path-to-file> -DgroupId=<myGroup> \ -DartifactId=<myArtifactId> -Dversion=<myVersion> \ -Dpackaging=<myPackaging> -DlocalRepositoryPath=<path>~~

Update: It appears that install:install-file ignores the localRepositoryPath when using the version 2.2 of the plugin. However, it works with version 2.3 and later of the plugin. So use the fully qualified name of the plugin to specify the version:

mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-install-plugin:2.3.1:install-file \
                         -Dfile=<path-to-file> -DgroupId=<myGroup> \ 
                         -DartifactId=<myArtifactId> -Dversion=<myVersion> \
                         -Dpackaging=<myPackaging> -DlocalRepositoryPath=<path>

maven-install-plugin documentation

Finally, declare it like any other dependency (but without the system scope):

<dependency>
  <groupId>your.group.id</groupId>
  <artifactId>3rdparty</artifactId>
  <version>X.Y.Z</version>
</dependency>

This is IMHO a better solution than using a system scope as your dependency will be treated like a good citizen (e.g. it will be included in an assembly and so on).

Now, I have to mention that the "right way" to deal with this situation in a corporate environment (maybe not the case here) would be to use a corporate repository.

User · Answer

This is another method in addition to my previous answer at Can I add jars to maven 2 build classpath without installing them    This will get around the limit when using multi-module builds especially if the downloaded JAR is referenced in child projects outside of the parent   This also reduces the setup work by creating the POM and the SHA1 files as part of the build   It also allows the file to reside anywhere in the project without fixing the names or following the maven repository structure   This uses the maven-install-plugin   For this to work  you need to set up a multi-module project and have a new project representing the build to install files into the local repository and ensure that one is first   You multi-module project pom xml would look like this    lt packaging gt pom lt  packaging gt   lt modules gt   lt  -- The repository module must be first in order to ensure      that the local repository is populated -- gt       lt module gt repository lt  module gt       lt module gt     other modules     lt  module gt   lt  modules gt    The repository pom xml file will then contain the definitions to load up the JARs that are part of your project   The following are some snippets of the pom xml file    lt artifactId gt repository lt  artifactId gt   lt packaging gt pom lt  packaging gt    The pom packaging prevents this from doing any tests or compile or generating any jar file   The meat of the pom xml is in the build section where the maven-install-plugin is used    lt build gt       lt plugins gt           lt plugin gt               lt groupId gt org apache maven plugins lt  groupId gt               lt artifactId gt maven-install-plugin lt  artifactId gt               lt executions gt                   lt execution gt                           lt id gt com ibm db2 db2jcc lt  id gt                           lt phase gt verify lt  phase gt                           lt goals gt                               lt goal gt install-file lt  goal gt                           lt  goals gt                           lt configuration gt                               lt groupId gt com ibm db2 lt  groupId gt                               lt artifactId gt db2jcc lt  artifactId gt                               lt version gt 9 0 0 lt  version gt                               lt packaging gt jar lt  packaging gt                               lt file gt   basedir  src jars db2jcc jar lt  file gt                               lt createChecksum gt true lt  createChecksum gt                               lt generatePom gt true lt  generatePom gt                           lt  configuration gt                   lt  execution gt                   lt execution gt     lt  execution gt               lt  executions gt           lt  plugin gt       lt  plugins gt   lt  build gt    To install more than one file  just add more executions

User · Answer

I ve previously written about a pattern for doing this   It is very similar to the solution proposed by Pascal  though it moves all such dependencies into a dedicated repository module so that you don t have to repeat it everywhere the dependency is used if it is a multi-module build

User · Answer

This is working for me  Let s say I have this dependency   lt dependency gt       lt groupId gt com company app lt  groupId gt       lt artifactId gt my-library lt  artifactId gt       lt version gt 1 0 lt  version gt       lt scope gt system lt  scope gt       lt systemPath gt   project basedir  lib my-library jar lt  systemPath gt   lt  dependency gt    Then  add the class-path for your system dependency manually like this   lt Class-Path gt libs my-library-1 0 jar lt  Class-Path gt    Full config    lt plugin gt       lt groupId gt org apache maven plugins lt  groupId gt       lt artifactId gt maven-jar-plugin lt  artifactId gt       lt version gt 2 4 lt  version gt       lt configuration gt           lt archive gt               lt manifestEntries gt                   lt Build-Jdk gt   jdk version  lt  Build-Jdk gt                   lt Implementation-Title gt   project name  lt  Implementation-Title gt                   lt Implementation-Version gt   project version  lt  Implementation-Version gt                   lt Specification-Title gt   project name  Library lt  Specification-Title gt                   lt Specification-Version gt   project version  lt  Specification-Version gt                   lt Class-Path gt libs my-library-1 0 jar lt  Class-Path gt               lt  manifestEntries gt               lt manifest gt                   lt addClasspath gt true lt  addClasspath gt                   lt mainClass gt com company app MainClass lt  mainClass gt                   lt classpathPrefix gt libs  lt  classpathPrefix gt               lt  manifest gt           lt  archive gt       lt  configuration gt   lt  plugin gt   lt plugin gt       lt groupId gt org apache maven plugins lt  groupId gt       lt artifactId gt maven-dependency-plugin lt  artifactId gt       lt version gt 2 5 1 lt  version gt       lt executions gt           lt execution gt               lt id gt copy-dependencies lt  id gt               lt phase gt package lt  phase gt               lt goals gt                   lt goal gt copy-dependencies lt  goal gt               lt  goals gt               lt configuration gt                   lt outputDirectory gt   project build directory  libs  lt  outputDirectory gt               lt  configuration gt           lt  execution gt       lt  executions gt   lt  plugin gt

User · Answer

Basically  add this to the pom xml         lt repositories gt      lt repository gt          lt id gt lib id lt  id gt          lt url gt file     project basedir  lib lt  url gt      lt  repository gt   lt  repositories gt         lt dependencies gt           lt dependency gt         lt groupId gt com mylibrary lt  groupId gt         lt artifactId gt mylibraryname lt  artifactId gt         lt version gt 1 0 0 lt  version gt     lt  dependency gt         lt  dependencies gt

User · Answer

we switched to gradle and this works much better in gradle      we just specify a folder we can drop jars into for temporary situations like that   We still have most of our jars defined i the typicaly dependency management section ie  the same as maven    This is just one more dependency we define   so basically now we can just drop any jar we want into our lib dir for temporary testing if it is not a in maven repository somewhere

User · Answer

You can use eclipse to generate a runnable Jar   Export Runable Jar file

User · Answer

One small addition to the solution posted by Pascal  When I followed this route  I got an error in maven while installing ojdbc jar      INFO  --- maven-install-plugin 2 5 1 install-file  default-cli    validator ---  INFO  pom xml not found in ojdbc14 jar   After adding -DpomFile  the problem was resolved     mvn install install-file -Dfile   lib ojdbc14 jar -DgroupId ojdbc      -DartifactId ojdbc -Dversion 14 -Dpackaging jar -DlocalRepositoryPath   repo      -DpomFile    m2 repository ojdbc ojdbc 14 ojdbc-14 pom

User · Answer

Using the system scope    basedir  is the directory of your pom    lt dependency gt       lt artifactId gt    lt  artifactId gt       lt groupId gt    lt  groupId gt       lt scope gt system lt  scope gt       lt systemPath gt   basedir  lib dependency jar lt  systemPath gt   lt  dependency gt    However it is advisable that you install your jar in the repository  and not commit it to the SCM - after all that s what maven tries to eliminate

[java] Maven: add a dependency to a jar by relative path

Examples related to java

Examples related to maven-2

Examples related to build-process

Examples related to build

Examples related to dependencies