maven: include indirect dependencies or not?

Question

Let's say I have a maven project that depend on one external library libA. And libA depends on libB. In my pom.xml, I declare libA as a dependency and all is well.

Not let's assume that during dev, I start using classes from libB too. libB is already pulled in the project through libA, so everything compiles fine and work, but should I also declare libB in my pom.xml?

If I don't, mvn dependency:analyze will complain that I use undeclared dependencies.

If I declare libB, maven will load it only once to avoid duplicates, so if I declare it after, it's as if I didn't, and if I declared it before, I risk forcing a version of libB incompatible with libA.

What's the better answer?

"Better" to be explicit about what *your program* (not your dependencies) needs and just declare it. — Federico klez Culloca, Jan 08 '21 at 13:53
See latest point of [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/35381664/133203) — Federico klez Culloca, Jan 08 '21 at 13:58
General answer All the classes you are using directly should be declared directly in your pom file... For compatibility you have unit- and integration tests which will show that (except you don't have tests..) — khmarbaise, Jan 08 '21 at 14:56

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 08 '21 at 14:42

0

Do what Federico suggests. It is the Maven way.

answered Jan 08 '21 at 14:42

J Fabian Meier

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maven: include indirect dependencies or not?

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