find dependencies in target/classes instead of local repository?

Question

Summary: I'm looking for a way to instruct maven to search for dependencies in target/classes instead of jar in the local repository

Say I have 2 modules, A and B where A depends on B. Both are listed in a module S. Normally I need to run 'mvn install' in S. I'm looking for a way to run 'mvn compile' so that when A is compiled its classpath will contain ../B/target/classes instead of ~/.m2/repository/com/company/b/1.0/b-1.0.jar.

(my reason is so that i can have continous compilation without the need to go through packaing and installation, or, more exactly, use 'mvn scala:cc' on multiple modules)

Answer 1

I don't think that this is possible without horrible hacking, this is just not how maven works. Maven uses binary dependencies and needs a local repository to resolve them. So, the maven way to handle this is to launch a reactor build on all modules. Just in case, have a look at Maven Tips and Tricks: Advanced Reactor Options.

But, during development, can't you just import all your projects in your IDE and use "project references" (i.e. configure your projects to depend on source code instead of a JAR) like most Java developers are doing? This is the common approach to avoid having to install an artifact to "see" the modifications.

If this is not possible and if you really don't want to install artifacts into your local repository, then you'll have to move your code into a unique module.

Answer 2

i know this is annoying. which helped me here is definitely IDE support. eclipse and IntelliJ are clever to collect all dependencies once a maven-project import is done. even cross module dependencies are compiled live.