Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@robin-a-meade

robin-a-meade/maven-versions-plugin ignore versions.md

Last active April 14, 2024 08:42
Show Gist options
  • Star 1 You must be signed in to star a gist
  • Fork 0 You must be signed in to fork a gist
  • Save robin-a-meade/f65379ed3779e45a133f2cd4977c65d2 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save robin-a-meade/f65379ed3779e45a133f2cd4977c65d2 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Download ZIP
maven-versions-plugin How to ignore alpha beta release candidate and milestone versions
Raw
maven-versions-plugin ignore versions.md

maven-versions-plugin: How to ignore alpha, beta, release candidate, and milestone versions

Introduction

By default, maven does not ignore versions ending with qualifier strings when searching for the latest version of an artifact.

For example, versions ending with -alpha, -beta3, -M-2, and -RC1 will be considered as valid upgrade candidates.

Consider the case of your project having a dependency on version 3.2.1 of a certain artifact and 3.3.0-beta is released. The maven-versions-plugin will, by default, consider that to be valid upgrade.

To make maven-plugin-versions ignore such qualified versions read on.

What about SNAPSHOT releases? How do I ignore those?

There's no need to create a rule to ignore SNAPSHOT releases because the allowSnapshots configuration parameter is false by default.

Difficult way: Create a rules.xml file

Based on:

Make a file next to your pom called, say, versions-ruleset.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ruleset comparisonMethod="maven" 
  xmlns="https://www.mojohaus.org/VERSIONS/RULE/2.1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="https://www.mojohaus.org/VERSIONS/RULE/2.1.0 https://www.mojohaus.org/versions/versions-model/xsd/rule-2.1.0.xsd">
    <ignoreVersions>
        <!-- Ignore Alpha's, Beta's, release candidates and milestones -->
        <ignoreVersion type="regex">(?i).*alpha(-?\d+)?</ignoreVersion>
        <ignoreVersion type="regex">(?i).*beta(-?\d+)?</ignoreVersion>
        <ignoreVersion type="regex">(?i).*rc(-?\d+)?</ignoreVersion>
        <ignoreVersion type="regex">(?i).*m(-?\d+)?</ignoreVersion>
    </ignoreVersions>
    <rules>
      <!-- You can add more specific rules here -->
    </rules>
</ruleset>

Explanation of the regex (refer to Java 8 regex documentation):

  • (?i) — sets the case-insensitive flag
  • .* — zero or more characters
  • alpha — the literal string alpha
  • (...)? — optional group, contents of which follow
    • -? — optional hyphen
    • \d — a digit

It should be noted that these regex patterns, like glob patterns, are tested against the whole version string. This is similar to grep's -x, --line-regexp option: "this is like parenthesizing the pattern and then surrounding it with ^ and $."

We can simplify this configuration by making use of alternation in the regex:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ruleset comparisonMethod="maven" 
  xmlns="https://www.mojohaus.org/VERSIONS/RULE/2.1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="https://www.mojohaus.org/VERSIONS/RULE/2.1.0 https://www.mojohaus.org/versions/versions-model/xsd/rule-2.1.0.xsd">
    <ignoreVersions>
        <!-- Ignore Alpha's, Beta's, release candidates and milestones -->
        <ignoreVersion type="regex">(?i).*(alpha|beta|rc|m)(-?\d+)?</ignoreVersion>
    </ignoreVersions>
    <rules>
      <!-- You can add more specific rules here -->
    </rules>
</ruleset>

Once you have your versions-ruleset.xml file prepared, you must reference it in the maven-versions-plugin configuration in your pom's pluginManagement section.

pom.xml: project > build > pluginManagement:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
  <artifactId>versions-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>2.8.1</version>
  <configuration>
    <rulesUri>file:///${project.basedir}/versions-rules.xml</rulesUri>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

Easier way: Using the ruleSet element directly in the POM

[S]tarting with version 2.13.0 it is possible to provide the ruleSet element directly in the POM

Using the ruleSet element in the POM

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
  <artifactId>versions-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>2.8.1</version>
  <configuration>
    <ruleSet>
      <ignoreVersions>
        <ignoreVersion>
          <type>regex</type>
          <version>(?i).*-(alpha|beta|m|rc)(-?\d+)?</version>
        </ignoreVersion>
      </ignoreVersions>
    </ruleSet>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

Even easier way: new parameter ignoredVersions

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
  <artifactId>versions-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>2.8.1</version>
  <configuration>
    <ignoredVersions>(?i).*-(alpha|beta|m|rc)(-?\d+)?</ignoredVersions>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

Note: You can supply this configuration parameter multiple regex by separating them with commas.

Learn more:

Using the maven.version.ignore property

The aforementioned ignoredVersions parameter has a corresponding user property: maven.version.ignore .

You can specify the maven.version.ignore property in your pom.xml or on the command line, just like any other property.

Example of using it in pom.xml:

pom.xml: project > properties:

<maven.version.ignore>(?i).*-(alpha|beta|m|rc)(-?\d+)?</maven.version.ignore>

Example of using it on the command line:

./mvnw -U -Dmaven.version.ignore='(?i).*-(alpha|beta|m|rc)(-?\d+)?' versions:display-plugin-updates

The -U, --update-snapshots option "forces a check for missing releases and updated snapshots on remote repositories." You might find it necessary sometimes to accurately reflect the latest releases on remote maven repositories, at least as a temporary workaround. See discussions:

Tip: comparing version strings

You can compare version strings using the maven-artifact.jar:

$ java -jar maven-artifact.jar 3.2.1 3.2.1-beta
Display parameters as parsed by Maven (in canonical form and as a list of tokens) and comparison result:
1. 3.2.1 -> 3.2.1; tokens: [3, 2, 1]
   3.2.1 > 3.2.1-beta
2. 3.2.1-beta -> 3.2.1-beta; tokens: [3, 2, 1, [beta]]

$ java -jar maven-artifact.jar 3.2.1 3.3.0-beta
Display parameters as parsed by Maven (in canonical form and as a list of tokens) and comparison result:
1. 3.2.1 -> 3.2.1; tokens: [3, 2, 1]
   3.2.1 < 3.3.0-beta
2. 3.3.0-beta -> 3.3-beta; tokens: [3, 3, [beta]]

As seen in these discussions:

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment