dependencies - Maven: how to override the dependency added by a library

Question

Here's my generic problem:

My project P depends on A which depends on B which depends on C which depends on version 1.0.1 of D.

There's a problem with version 1.0.1 of D and I want to force the use of another module. I don't know how to declare this in my project's POMs since I haven't added a dependency on D directly. It's C which declared the dependency on D.

Important: In this case, not only the version is changed, but the group & artifact as well. So it's not just a matter of overriding the version of the dependency, but rather, of excluding a module and including another one.

In the concrete case, D is StAX whose 1.0.1 has a bug. According to the notes in the bug, "the problems were solved by replacing the stax-api-1.0.1 (maven GroupId = stax) by stax-api-1.0-2 (maven GroupId = javax.xml.stream)" so I'm trying just that.

Thus, D = stax:stax-api:jar:1.0.1 and C = org.apache.xmlbeans:xmlbeans:jar:2.3.0

I'm using maven 2.0.9 in case it matters.

Output of mvn dependency:tree"

mvn dependency:tree
[..snip..]
[INFO] +- org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:jar:3.6:compile
[INFO] |  +- org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml-schemas:jar:3.6:compile
[INFO] |  |  +- org.apache.xmlbeans:xmlbeans:jar:2.3.0:compile
[INFO] |  |  |  - stax:stax-api:jar:1.0.1:compile

In my project's POM I have the following dependency on "A":

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
    <artifactId>poi</artifactId>
    <version>3.6</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
    <artifactId>poi-ooxml</artifactId>
    <version>3.6</version>
</dependency>

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Simply specify the version in your current pom. The version specified here will override other.

Forcing a version
A version will always be honoured if it is declared in the current POM with a particular version - however, it should be noted that this will also affect other poms downstream if it is itself depended on using transitive dependencies.

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Resources :

• Dependency Mediation and Conflict Resolution
• Introduction to the Dependency Mechanism