How to manage gradle transitive dependency conflicts? - gradle

I have a project that has a build.gradle that looks like the following:
compile project(':project1')
compile project(':project2')
compileOnly(group: 'org.scala-lang', name: 'scala-library', version: '2.10.5')
Let's say it is not easy to identify the exact dependencies that I need in "project1", which is the main reason why we have this "whole project" dependency in the first place. Assuming that project1 also depends on scala-lang but a wildly different version. At runtime, some part of our code depends on this "scala-lang" from project1 dependencies, while some other part of the code depends on the scala-lang I specified via compileOnly().
This is just one example, my actual code depends on many projects and many many more individual libraries. Let's also assume that breaking the monolithic code base into smaller and more manageable components is not doable at this time. What are some great ways to manage dependencies and transitive dependencies in Java gradle project? Thanks!

Related

How can i publish just a build script in gradle?

I want to publish a common build script which i will include across various projects in my application.
This will contain only the common set of dependencies, i.e dependencies with particular versions that will be common across all the artifacts in my enterprise application..
My applications will refer to this file from the url.
How can i achieve this?
EDIT1: my exploration in this direction is based on this answer on SO:
How to share a common build.gradle via a repository?
There are a few different options for this.
One is to publish a project with the dependencies you want to share defined as API dependencies. Projects that depend on this will inherit the dependencies.
Or you could write and publish a Gradle plugin that will configure your projects with the common dependencies. Projects can apply the plugin, and will automatically be configured in a certain way. (You don't need to publish a plugin to do this - first try creating a project-local buildSrc convention plugin.)
I would actually recommend neither of these approaches.
It's easy to get into a tangled web of dependency hell when transitive dependencies are inherited. It's likely that at some point some dependency will clash, and excluding dependencies can be a big headache, and will easily cancel out any benefit in trying to reduce a little duplication.
Additionally, it's nice when a project is explicit about its dependencies. Being able to look at a build.gradle.kts and understand exactly what dependencies are set is very convenient.
Instead, what I would recommend is controlling the versions of common dependencies in a central location. This can be achieved with the Java Platform plugin. This plugin can be applied to a single build.gradle.kts file, and it lists all versions of all possible dependencies. (It can also import existing Maven BOMs, like the Spring Boot BOM).
Now, all subprojects can add a platform dependency on the 'Java Platform' project.
dependencies {
// import the platform from a Maven repo
implementation(platform("my.company:my-shared-platform:1.2.3"))
// or import a platform from a local project
implementation(platform(":my-project:version-platform"))
// no need to define a version, if it's defined in the platform
implementation("com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind")
}
This is the best of both worlds. Projects can be explicit about their dependencies, retain autonomy, while the versions can be aligned across independent projects.

Can I override Gradle module's dependency with version built within the same multi-module project?

Imagine there is a Gradle project with 2 modules, modA and modB. modB depends on modA.
// within modB's build.gradle
dependencies {
implementation 'com.example:modA:x.y.z'
}
I could also define the top level's project dependencies like this:
// within the top level build.gradle
project(':modB') {
dependencies {
implementation project(':modA')
}
}
In this latter example, the output from modA's compilation is put on the classpath for the compilation of modB.
What happens if I use both in the same project: what version of classes will get compiled into modB? Will it be version x.y.z of modA, or will it be the versions that have just been compiled?
I'm trying to work out a sensible way of versioning a monorepo's submodules, where each submodule needs to have a separate version and I'm wanting to understand how Gradle resolves versions.
These notations are different:
First asks gradle to go to the repository (public or local, it depends on main gradle file) and get jar from there. In this case mobB and mobA are fully independent, so they could be built in parallel.
Second asks gradle to use local project. It means that mobB requires compilation of mobA, etc.
For complex multiproject, please also consider Spring Dependency Management plugin. It allows you to define complex rules at the one include script. For example, you can put logice like this "if project is external client then exclude the following". As a result, you can consolidate all dependencies and versions at the one script, so your project will contain nothing.

Gradle share dependencies in a cascade manner between related projects

I have the following Java projects structure:
Util
|
-- Core
|
-- Services
|
-- Tools
The projects: Tools and Services references to Core and Util projects, the thing is that I ended up writing the same dependency over each project, there must be a better way to inherit the dependencies of the referenced projects and add new ones if needed.
I know about multi projects in Gradle, but this is not like a multi project, since I can basically take the Core library, compile it (which will then contain Core + Util libs) and use it in another project.
I wonder what would be the best way to approach this?
Repeating the same dependencies in every project is usually reasonable because in a bigger project you'll never know when they become different, and you don't want to deal with compilation/runtime problems when someone changes common dependencies list.
I believe that it is more pragmatic to add dependency analyser plugin to your build. It will help you to remove unnecessary dependencies and explicitly add transitive dependencies. And if you add this plugin to your build chain, it will help you to keep your dependencies healthy in the future. Pick this plugin here gradle-dependency-analyze, or maybe there is a better fork or equivalent somewhere.
You are actually out of options in your case because there are only two kinds of dependencies: (1) external (some other jar artefact) or (2) internal (another module in a multimodule build).
2.1 When you use an external maven-like dependency it will come to you with own dependencies (they are named "transitive dependencies"). It means that if you do compile 'yourgroup:Core:1.0' then you will get Util as a transitive dependency. But as I mentioned above, it is better to list transitive dependencies explicitly if they are used during compilation or to prevent them from being accidentally removed and crash your application in runtime.
2.2. If your projects live in the same version control repository and usually change and build together, then the multimodule layout is your best choice. In this case, you will refer to Core dependency like compile project(':Util:Core') and it will grab Util as a transitive dependency as well. And you will be able to do what you asked for and define dependencies for Services and Tools once - inside subprojects {} closure in the Core/build.gradle.
Having multimodule built doesn't limit you from using Core library elsewhere. No matter if it is a multimodule build or not, you can always add maven-publish plugin to Core/build.gradle, execute publishToMavenLocal task and reference to Core.jar from another project the same way you do for external dependencies.
You can always put your common code (like the one which will add common dependencies) in the external gradle file or custom plugin and apply it in Services and Tools.

Cyclic dependency in Maven, chickens and eggs

I have a project called 'talktome', with no runtime dependencies.
Also I have project 'talktome-tools', which depends on 'talktome'.
No problems, until I realize that the unit-tests in 'talktome' depends on 'talktome-tools'.
What solutions are there?
If talktome is a general project where other (e.g talktome-tools) depends on, it should not be depend on the more specific projects. Then, it would be wise to get rid of dependency from talktome to talktome-tools.
Otherwise, you would create a more higher level project (e.g parent) and put necessary interfaces, classes that can be used by both talktome and talktome-tools to the new project.
You may move the tests to another maven module like talktome-tests that will do the integration testing. It makes sense especially it seems that talktome shouldn't depend on specific project like talktome-tools.
And, test dependencies like talktome-tools should be included with test scope.

How to create a maven assembly with transitive dependencies for different deployment scenarios?

I'm having a problem reconciling building a project for use within an application server and for use as a stand-alone application.
To give an overall simplified context, say I have three Projects A, B, C.
Project A depends on Project B which depends on Project C.
Project C has a dependency X which is marked as provided since it was expected that it would be available as a JEE library within say an application server. i.e. jms.jar.
So if I perform an assembly build of Project A, I get all the transitive dependencies save for those marked as provided as expected.
Now I have a new deployment scenario where Project A needs to be used in a standalone environment i.e. outside an application server.
So now I need the jms jar to be a compile dependency. Does this mean that I should explicitly add a compile dependency for X in Project A? Doesn't this violate the Law of Demeter, i.e. don't talk to strangers, in the sense Project A shouldn't explicitly know about Project C but only about Project B?
This is a simple example but in reality I have multiple dependencies which have been marked as provided but are now need to be compile or runtime dependencies so they end up in the artifact produced by the maven assembly plugin.
Is this a fundamental problem with Maven or am I not using the tools correctly?
Thanks in advance for any guidance.
If you need your build to have variations in it for different scenarios, you need to use profiles and keep certain things (such as some of the dependencies) in the various profiles.
http://maven.apache.org/pom.html#Profiles
Different dependencies for different build profiles in maven
answers a similar question - but you can swap in the "release" and "debug" for "Project A" and "Project C"
Provided dependencies are a difficult subject. First of all: Provided dependencies are not transitive in the following sense: If your project C has a provided dependency on X, then A will not get the dependency. It is silently ignored. This fits with the following meaning of "provided" which I propose:
Only the artifacts that are actually deployed should mark dependencies as "provided". Libraries or other jars that are not individually deployed to a specific server should not have provided dependencies. Instead, they should declare their dependencies as compile dependencies. In your example: Project C should have a compile dependency on X. If project A knows that X is provided, it sets X to provided in "dependencyManagement". As project A should know the environment in which it runs it should decide what is provided and what is not. And "dependenyManagement" is the right place to declare this.
If your project A should be able to run within and without a given server, you probably need to make a lot of adjustments, even change the type from ear to jar. So you either use build profiles for this, which then have different dependencyManagement entries, or you split A into two projects which depend on some other project that contains the common elements.
If some given project C already has a provided dependency on X and you cannot change that, this is effectively the same as a missing dependency in C. This has to be repaired at some point, and this could be project A itself.

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