Transitively download a Maven artifact to the local repository - maven

Question

I am trying to download a specific artifact (and all of its dependencies) to a machine's local repository.
It would seem that using the dependency:get goal would be the best option for this, but despite the documentation it does not seem to actually get the transitive dependencies.
Here is an example where I have tried to use dependency:get to download the spring-core jar and all of its many dependencies. You'll notice that the spring-core jar is the only thing downloaded despite the fact that this was done after cleaning the local repository.
$ mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:2.2:get -DrepoUrl=http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/ -Dartifact=org.springframework:spring-core:3.0.5.RELEASE -Dtransitive=true
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Maven Stub Project (No POM) 1
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-dependency-plugin:2.2:get (default-cli) # standalone-pom ---
Downloading: http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/springframework/spring-core/3.0.5.RELEASE/spring-core-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar
Downloaded: http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/springframework/spring-core/3.0.5.RELEASE/spring-core-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar (374 KB at 548.4 KB/sec)
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 4.401s
[INFO] Finished at: Wed May 25 00:29:47 CDT 2011
[INFO] Final Memory: 7M/107M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
My questions are:
Is this a bug with the dependency:get goal?
If not, what am I doing wrong?
Are there any alternatives methods I could use to accomplish my initially stated goal?

Answer 1

If this is a one time or irregular occurrence for you, The simplest thing to do would be to define the dependency in a POM and run mvn package or similar to retrieve the dependency artifacts. You could also try mvn dependency:sources if you'd like to have the source jars too.
If this is something you want to do more regularly or as part of a process, you could look at using Aether directly to retrieve the dependencies for you.
Another approach if this is something you need to do regularly to manage groups of artifacts into your internal development ecosystem is to use Nexus' procurement suite to retrieve the dependencies and manage them into your repository.

Answer 2

You might can go with this solution
1) Download the artifact as you described (I tested with version 2.5.2)
c:\test>mvn -DrepoUrl=http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/ -Dartifact=org.springframework:spring-core:2.5.2 -Dtransitive=true
2) Download the pom (-Dpackaging=pom) of this artifact
c:\test>mvn -DrepoUrl=http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/ -Dartifact=org.springframework:spring-core:2.5.2 -Dtransitive=true -Dpackaging=pom org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:2.2:get
3) Use the downloaded pom to copy all dependencies via the dependency:copy-dependency gaol
c:\test>mvn -DoutputDirectory=C:/test/dependency -f C:/<path-to-repository>/org/springframework/spring-core/2.5.2/spring-core-2.5.2.pom dependency:copy-dependencies
You will find the dependencies (including test and optional scope!) in the created c:\test\dependency folder. To exclude test and optional scope use -DincludeScope=runtime.
You need to dynamically build some path information (e.g. path to the pom in your repository) to set up this solution and also need to bring the artifact itself together with its dependencies but it should work in a script without generating a special pom (which might be easier).

Answer 3

It would appear the answer to question #1 (Is this a bug with the dependency:get goal?) is yes. As of 5/25/2011 issue MDEP-308 is still unresolved.