On 27 September 2012 14:41, Jesse Long <j...@unknown.za.net> wrote: > Dear Maven Community, > > I am writing to beg you to fix the problems with the version ranges in > Maven 3.0.5, specifically regarding the defining compatible version ranges. > > I am using Maven 3.0.4. I have a simple project that depends on > org.slf4j:slf4j-api version 1.5.*. I define my compatibility range as > [1.5.0,1.6.0), but this links slf4j-api version 1.6.0-RC0. If I define the > version range as [1.5.0,1.6.0-SNAPSHOT) I still get slf4j-api version > 1.6.0-RC0 linked in. I then tried [1.5.0,1.6.0-RC0), but then slf4j-api > version 1.6.0-alpha2 is linked in. > > Eventually, I discover that if I ask for [1.5.0,1.6.0-alpha), then the > correct version, 1.5.11, is linked in. But if version 1.6.0-aa7 was > released it would probably break again. > > This is all too counter-intuitive. The current version of SLF4J is 1.7.1. > If my project was to be built against it, knowing that there is a > likelihood of an incompatible change being introduced in 1.8.0 (SLF4J does > not adhere to SemVer), I would like to define my version range for > slf4j-api as [1.7.0,1.8.0). I
I think you do [1.7.0,1.8.0-!) but that might just include 1.8.0-SNAPSHOT > have no way of knowing before the time what type of -RC0, -alpha2 > qualified releases will be made for 1.8.0, so I can only exclude 1.8.0. > > However, when 1.8.0-alpha2 is released with incompatible changes, my build > will immediately be broken. > > I could depend on version 1.5.11 directly, without using a version range, > but Maven considers this a soft version dependency and will ignore it as > needed. > > It is apparent that there is no reliable way to define a compatibility > range in Maven. I feel that this should be a major concern to all Maven > users and developers. > > It would be a shame for all the effort made by the Maven community to make > software builds stable and reproducible to be undermined by consistent, > predictable breakage described above. > > I have read in mailing list archives that the suggested way of excluding > all 1.8.0 pre-release version is to define an exclusive upper bound as > 1.8.0-SNAPSHOT - like [1.7.0,1.8.0-SNAPSHOT). As demonstrated above with > 1.6.0-RC0, this does not work. Also, it makes no sense at all for a user to > wish to include 1.8.0-SNAPSHOT and not 1.8.0. > > My proposal is that the qualifier is ignored when comparing a version to > the version number declared in an exclusive upper bound. ie. 1.6.0-xyz > should be considered equal to 1.6.0 in [1.5.0,1.6.0), and therefore > considered to fall outside of the version range. Importantly, it should > only be for the special case of comparing to the version number in an > exclusive upper bound. > > If the powers that be see fit, an exception could be made for service pack > qualifiers, which according to one web page on Maven version ordering I > read, should be sorted after the release, although I would prefer to see > Maven more closely aligned to SemVer, where all qualified version numbers > are considered pre-release versions. I consider 1.7.2 a better version > number than 1.7.1-sp1. > > Ultimately, I would like to be able to make things as easy as possible for > users depending on a library that adheres to SemVer, to define a > compatibility range like: [1.4.0,2.0.0). I see no reason why it should not > be as easy as that. > > Please consider fixing this soon. > > I have not logged a Jira issue, as I cannot log into CodeHaus Jira. The > signup link on this page displays an error: http://maven.apache.org/users/ > **getting-help.html <http://maven.apache.org/users/getting-help.html> > > Jira issue MNG-3092, reported over 5 years ago, is related to this issue, > but the initial report is for a similar issue, not this issue. The issue I > describe above is reported and discussed in the comments for MNG-3092 > though. > > Thanks, > Jesse > > ------------------------------**------------------------------**--------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > users-unsubscribe@maven.**apache.org<users-unsubscr...@maven.apache.org> > For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@maven.apache.org > >
