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Inline plugin for Apache Maven

This plugin inlines dependencies to a library or other application into the main artifact.

See also the Maven site for the plugin.

When to use this plugin

Easily create components that have external dependencies but should not “bleed” these dependencies into other code that wants to use them. The plugin will take these dependencies, inline them and rewrite the POM for the main artifact to no longer refer to the dependencies that have been inlined.

How to use the plugin

Inline a single dependency:


<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.antlr</groupId>
        <artifactId>antlr4-runtime</artifactId>
        <version>4.9.2</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
    <plugin>
        <groupId>org.basepom.maven</groupId>
        <artifactId>inline-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>1.0</version>
        <configuration>
            <prefix>relocated</prefix>
            <inlineDependencies>
                <inlineDependency>
                    <artifact>org.antlr:antlr4-runtime</artifact>
                </inlineDependency>
            </inlineDependencies>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
            <execution>
                <phase>package</phase>
                <goals>
                    <goal>inline</goal>
                </goals>
            </execution>
        </executions>
    </plugin>
</plugins>
</build>

The plugin will put all content of the inlined dependency under the relocated prefix and rewrite the code to use these relocated classes and resources.

The inline:inline goal is the main goal and should be called in the package phase of the lifecycle.

Supported configuration options

<configuration>
    <inlineDependencies>
        <inlineDependency>
            <artifact> ...groupId:artifactId... </artifact>
            <inlineTransitive>true|false</inlineTransitive>
            <inlineOptionals>true|false|</inlineOptionals>
        </inlineDependency>
        ....
    </inlineDependencies>

    <prefix> ...relocation prefix... </prefix>

    <includes>
        <include> ...groupId:artifactId... </include>
        ....
    </includes>

    <excludes>
        <exclude> ...groupId:artifactId... </exclude>
        ....
    </excludes>

    <failOnDuplicate>true (false)</failOnDuplicate>
    <failOnNoMatch>true (false)</failOnNoMatch>
    <hideClasses>true (false)</hideClasses>
    <inlinedArtifactAttached>false (true)</inlinedArtifactAttached>
    <quiet>false (true)</quiet>
    <replacePomFile>true (false)</replacePomFile>
    <skip>false (true)</skip>

    <inlinedClassifierName>inlined</inlinedClassifierName>
    <outputJarFile> ...file name... </outputJarFile>
    <outputPomFile> ...file name... </outputPomFile>

    <additionalProcessors>
        <additionalProcessor> ... class name of processor... </additionalProcessor>
        ....
    <additionalProcessors>

    <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}</outputDirectory>
    <pomFile>${project.file}</pomFile>
</configuration>

Required configuration paramters

Option Type Default Function
prefix string - Defined the root package for all relocated classes.

Optional configuration parameters

Option Type Default Function
failOnDuplicate boolean true Any duplicate entry in the rewritten jar file will fail the build. If false, duplicates will be discarded.
failOnNoMatch boolean true Each inlineDependency item must match a project dependency. Fail the build otherwise.
hideClasses boolean true If true, rewrites all classes in a jar to be not visible for IDE auto-completion.
inlinedArtifactAttached boolean false If true, attach the rewritten jar using the inlinedClassifierName, otherwise replace the main artifact.
inlinedClassifierName string inlined If the rewritten jar gets attached, use this value as the classifier.
outputDirectory string ${project.build.directory} The plugin writes the rewritten jar file in this directory.
outputJarFile string - Sets an explicit output file for the rewritten jar file. If unused, write the jar in the project build directory using the inlinedClassifierName classifier.
outputPomFile string - Sets an explicit output file for the rewritten pom file. If unused, write the POM using the name of the original POM file, prefixed with new-.
pomFile string ${project.file} The POM file for the project. This will be read to create the rewritten POM.
quiet boolean false If true, do not output any information besides errors or warnings.
replacePomFile boolean true Replace the POM file in the build cycle with the rewritten POM file. This does NOT rewrite the POM file on disk but uses it for all subsequent steps in the build cycle (including install and deploy).
skip boolean false If true, skips execution of the plugin.
inlineDependencies list of inlineDependency elements - see below.
includes explicit list of dependencies to include - see below.
excludes explicit list of dependencies to exclude - see below.
additionalProcessors list of class names - Additional jar processors to rewrite the jar. See [Additional Processors] for more information.

Defining dependencies to inline with inlineDependencies:

Option Type Default Function
artifact string - Defines the artifact to inline. Must be given as groupId:artifactId.
inlineTransitive boolean false If true, also inline all transitive dependencies. If false, transitive dependencies are added to the rewritten POM file as direct dependencies.
inlineOptionals boolean false If true, add all optional, transitive dependencies as well. If false, ignore optional dependencies.

Including and excluding dependencies

It should not be necessary to explicitly specify includes and excludes. If a dependency is inlined and has transitive dependencies that are also used by the project itself, these will be automatically excluded.

The <includes> and <excludes> options can be used in special cases. If the includes list is empty, everything that has been specified using inlineDependencies will be automatically included (direct and transitive) and any exclude will remove dependencies. If the include list is not empty, any transitive dependency included must be specified as included. If both includes and excludes are defined, the order is “included, then excluded”.

When not to use this plugin

There is a wealth of other plugins that do similar things. This plugin is NOT intended to create executable jars, all-in-one deployable services or support a large number of customizations. For any of those, better choices exist, e.g.

Each of those is a good choice for use cases that are not covered by the this plugin.