Hi, take a look at my comments inline, this is a typical question... > > Hi all, > > First of all big thanks to all Maven developers, it's a really > great tool, > and despite some occasional quirks it works great ! > > Anyway, I have just converted a reasonably large project to > Maven, and I'm > still in the process of getting all the dependencies together. > The problem > is that I am having trouble understanding some of the reasoning > behind the > central repository, and therefore have more trouble explaining it to my > fellow developpers. Here are some of the questions I got which I > must say I > am unable to answer with confidence. > > 1. What happens if ibiblio suddenly becomes unavailable ? Shouldn't Maven > have a mirroring system the same way Debian repositories have ? It should, and I think someday in the future it might. However, ibiblio's aim is to be a library for the internet, so we can hope it stays up. > > 2. A lot of companies use their own remote repository. What should be in > there, only what's not on ibiblio ? What about the failure case > in question > 1 ? Sure.. If you are willing to keep your local repository up to date, then definitly go ahead and maintain one. There are lots of groups, both companies and open source, that maintain their own repositories. > > 3. Another advantage of a "personal" remote repository is the possibility > to instantly add JARs you require, since even despite the really good > efforts by Maven committers, it will take time, and sometimes you > just want > things "right away". What is the best practice in such cases ? If you are deploying a single project that has very specific dependencies, then sure, put them in your own repository. However, if your project depends on artifacts made by others then it helps to get them up on ibiblio because it reduces load on your servers and others can use them as well in there projects.
> > 4. For open source projects, such as the Apache developers, what are the > best practices to ensure *coherent* JAR dependencies ? Because > here I have > of people that had either non-working SNAPSHOTs, or old ones, etc... Continous integration helps. It ensures that when you cut a snapshot, you actually deploy it to a repository versus leaving it in your local Maven repo. Also, having a policy that you don't release your code if it relies on SNAPSHOTs can help as well. However, if you know the quality of a snapshot, then there isn't per se anything inheritanly wrong with relying on one. > > 5. Why are there so little plugins on ibiblio ? For example the Torque > plugin was removed from RC2 but isn't available on ibiblio. Is > this normal ? Most plugins where bundled in with the maven install. Over time, plugins have been broken out, like Torque, and returned to the project they came from. However, many of them, like Torque, are waiting for their next release to be cut to be put online at ibiblio. I think over time you will see more plugins on ibiblio. Eric Pugh --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
