Document how resolver works internally #1794
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To have a place to direct users asking wrong questions, but also to align "lingo" we use.
elharo
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Feb 11, 2026
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| Maven Artifact Resolver (former Aether) is central piece of Maven, and thus, |
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| Maven Artifact Resolver (former Aether) is central piece of Maven, and thus, | ||
| is many times target of questions and curiosity how it actually works under the hood. |
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delete ", and thus,
is many times target of questions and curiosity how it actually works under the hood."
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| Maven Artifact Resolver (former Aether) is central piece of Maven, and thus, | ||
| is many times target of questions and curiosity how it actually works under the hood. | ||
| This document tries to shed some light on this topic, and explain the main concepts |
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shed some light on this topic --> explain how resolver works under the hood
| This document tries to shed some light on this topic, and explain the main concepts | ||
| and building blocks of Resolver. | ||
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| One important aspect of Resolver is that itself, alone is "incomplete". Integrating application, like Maven is |
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One important aspect of Resolver is that itself, alone --> Resolver along
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| One important aspect of Resolver is that itself, alone is "incomplete". Integrating application, like Maven is | ||
| the one that provides the "glue" (models) and logic how to resolve versions, ranges, build effective models. | ||
| Hence, Resolver itself, alone is unusable. To make it usable, one needs to complement it with models and |
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Hence, Resolver itself, alone is unusable. To make it usable, one needs to complement it with models and
implementations of missing components. Historically, Maven module completing Resolver is the
org.apache.maven:maven-resolver-provider module.
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By itself, Resolver is unusable. One needs to complement it with models and implementations of missing components. Historically, the Maven module completing Resolver is
org.apache.maven:maven-resolver-provider.
| In general, steps "dependency graph collection" and "conflict resolution" are performed together, and lingo we use for that operation is "dependency collection". | ||
| The "flattening" and "artifact resolving" are also usually done together, and we use for those the term "artifact resolving". | ||
| To have the story more confusing, when all the steps are performed together is also called "dependency resolution". | ||
| Resolver API reflects this terminology and offers methods doing collection, resolution or both. |
| To have the story more confusing, when all the steps are performed together is also called "dependency resolution". | ||
| Resolver API reflects this terminology and offers methods doing collection, resolution or both. | ||
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| * Method `CollectResult collectDependencies(RepositorySystemSession session, CollectRequest request)` performs only the collection step, |
| Resolver API reflects this terminology and offers methods doing collection, resolution or both. | ||
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| * Method `CollectResult collectDependencies(RepositorySystemSession session, CollectRequest request)` performs only the collection step, | ||
| as name suggests. Hence, only steps "collection" and "conflict resolution" are performed. |
| * Method `DependencyResult resolveDependencies(RepositorySystemSession session, DependencyRequest request)` performs both | ||
| collection and resolution steps. | ||
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| Also, each subsequent step depends on the previous one, for example a "dirty graph" cannot be flattened (due possible cycles). |
| collection and resolution steps. | ||
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| Also, each subsequent step depends on the previous one, for example a "dirty graph" cannot be flattened (due possible cycles). | ||
| And many times, what you want depends on your use case. For example, to investigate dependency graph, one may |
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And many times --> Many times
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To have a place to direct users asking wrong questions, but also to align "lingo" we use.