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Range Resolver

Getting started

This walk-through builds a small pom.deps file from scratch and shows how it changes as it is resolved and locked.

1. Declare a repository

Section titled “1. Declare a repository”

Every script that resolves Maven artifacts needs at least one repository.

repository https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/ as central;

The as central part names the repository. Names let you send different requests to different repositories, and they double as repository ids, so <server> and <mirror> entries in settings.xml with <id>central</id> apply to it.

2. Ask for some versions

Section titled “2. Ask for some versions”
repository https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/ as central;


resolve highest com.google.guava:guava:[33.0.0-jre,34.0.0) via central;
resolve lowest  org.slf4j:slf4j-api:[2.0.0,3.0.0) via central;

Each resolve statement has four parts:

Part Example Meaning
bound highest Which version in the range to pick: lowest, highest or snapshot.
coordinates com.google.guava:guava The Maven groupId:artifactId.
range [33.0.0-jre,34.0.0) A Maven version range.
via grouping via central Optional. Which named repositories to search.

lowest is useful for libraries, where you want to compile against the oldest version you claim to support. highest suits applications, where you want the newest compatible release.

3. Resolve

Section titled “3. Resolve”

Running the resolver (with Maven, mvn rangeresolver:resolve-deps; see Using with Apache Maven) queries the repositories and appends what it found:

repository https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/ as central;


resolve highest com.google.guava:guava:[33.0.0-jre,34.0.0) via central;
resolve lowest org.slf4j:slf4j-api:[2.0.0,3.0.0) via central;


resolved com.google.guava:guava:33.8.0-jre;
resolved org.slf4j:slf4j-api:2.0.0;

The versions are published as the properties guava.version and slf4j-api.version, named after the artifact id.

4. Lock

Section titled “4. Lock”

Locking promotes every resolved record to locked:

locked com.google.guava:guava:33.8.0-jre;
locked org.slf4j:slf4j-api:2.0.0;

Commit the file. Builds now use exactly these versions.

5. Upgrade later

Section titled “5. Upgrade later”

Run the resolver again some time later. If Guava 33.9.0-jre has been released, the next run produces:

resolved com.google.guava:guava:33.9.0-jre;


locked org.slf4j:slf4j-api:2.0.0;

Nothing changes for SLF4J, because a newly resolved version replaces a locked one only when it is strictly newer.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”