Maven Antrun and Dependencies

Question

(See edits below.)

The reason I can't just use the classpath, is because I need to manage some non-java libraries, and I'm compiling a non-java project.

I'm trying to use maven dependencies in an antrun call, following the documentation on the maven site:

http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-antrun-plugin/examples/classpaths.html

At the bottom of the page:

<property name="mvn.dependency.jar" 
      refid="maven.dependency.my.group.id:my.artifact.id:classifier:jar.path"/>
<echo message="My Dependency JAR-Path: ${mvn.dependency.jar}"/>

I can't make this work no matter how I try. I've tried ${} around the refid contents, I've tried colons, periods, etc.. as separators in every way I can think of.

Can anyone tell me what that refid should really look like for some common dependency?

EDIT:

Thanks for your reply.

Using your example SingleShot, I have the following:

<plugins>
  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
    <executions>
      <execution>
        <id>create-messages</id>
        <phase>compile</phase>
        <configuration>
          <tasks>
            <property name="build.compiler" value="extJavac"/>
            <property name="compile_classpath" refid="maven.compile.classpath"/>
            <property name="runtime_classpath" refid="maven.runtime.classpath"/>
            <property name="test_classpath" refid="maven.test.classpath"/>
            <property name="plugin_classpath" refid="maven.plugin.classpath"/>

            <property name="log4j.jar" refid="log4j:log4j:jar"/>
            <echo message="Where is the Log4J JAR?: ${log4j.jar}"/>
          </tasks>
        </configuration>
        <goals>
          <goal>run</goal>
        </goals>
      </execution>
    </executions>
    <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>log4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
        <version>1.2.14</version>
      </dependency>
    </dependencies>
  </plugin>

And here's what I get when run mvn compile:

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Chat Component
[INFO]    task-segment: [compile]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downloading: http://<redacted>/content/groups/public/log4j/log4j/1.2.14/log4j-1.2.14.pom
2K downloaded
Downloading: http://<redacted>/content/groups/public/log4j/log4j/1.2.14/log4j-1.2.14.jar
358K downloaded
[INFO] [antrun:run {execution: create-messages}]
[INFO] Executing tasks
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD ERROR
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Error executing ant tasks

Embedded error: Reference log4j:log4j:jar not found.
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] For more information, run Maven with the -e switch
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 3 seconds
[INFO] Finished at: Fri Oct 16 14:54:19 PDT 2009
[INFO] Final Memory: 7M/80M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT (2):

Looking at the sourcecode linked I decided to run "mvn -X compile" and grep for "Storing", which turns up a bunch of log output where things are getting stored.

Of interest are the facts that the dependency I'm explicitly specifying isn't showing in the list, and, that when I switch to a key based on one of the entries I do see, I still get the error.

Answer 1

Without an example of what you typed into your POM its hard to say, but consider a concrete example. Let's say your POM references log4j (groupId=log4j, artifactId=log4j). I believe this is how you would reference that JAR in your Ant file:

<property name="log4j.jar" refid="maven.dependency.log4j:log4j:jar.path"/>
<echo message="Where is the Log4J JAR?: ${log4j.jar}"/>

Ideally you shouldn't have to reference specific JARs, but rather, reference the entire classpath for the appropriate scope, as the somewhat sparse documentation for the plug-in indicates.

If you still have trouble, please post the <dependency> tag for a Maven POM dependency you are using and I can try to be more specific.

I looked at the plugin's code to confirm.

Answer 2

As an addendum to Aaron H.'s answer above, I had to set the plugin's version to 1.3 for that to actually work. I was using it without a specific version and was getting 1.1 (where nothing seems to work).

      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-antrun-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>1.3</version>
        ...
      </plugin>

Answer 3

There is a bug in the documentation. The path should be of the form:

<property name="mvn.dependency.jar" 
  value="${maven.dependency.my.group.id.my.artifact.id.classifier.jar.path}"/>

So the correct key for your log4j dependency would be:

maven.dependency.log4j.log4j.jar.path

Also note that it should be value= rather than refid=, so the full property would be:

<property name="log4j.jar" 
      value="${maven.dependency.log4j.log4j.jar.path}"/>
<echo message="My Dependency JAR-Path: ${log4j.jar}"/>