/usr/share/java as maven repository?

[Marcus Better]

Paul Cager wrote:
> E.g. the POM could require JUnit-3.8.1 but Debian has packaged version
> 3.8.2. In this case we would set up a link in the temporary Maven
> repository:
> 
>   debian/.m2/repository/.../junit-3.8.1.jar -> /usr/share/java/junit.jar
> -> /usr/share/java/junit-3.8.2.jar

> We should check that the Debian version is not *older* than the version
> required by the POM, but we are still relying on releases being backwards
> compatible. Any comments?

This is a recipe for disaster since the dependencies will likely break ABI
at some point. Then our package will FTBFS if we are lucky, or build and
run with the wrong version and give very interesting bugs later on. (On the
other hand it's similar to what we already do...)

It seems to me that we must keep track of ABI compatibility. This is a bit
complicated, but it's our job if we want to be a well-integrated
distribution. In other words we should try to solve the library versioning
problem first, and only then try to build packages with Maven.

Cheers,

Marcus