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Dependency version selectors

Dependency management recipes, such as Upgrade Maven Dependency Version or Add Maven Dependency, accept version numbers as parameters. If you know the exact version number up front you can configure such recipes with it. But the desired version number isn't always knowable up front, or no single version number may be adequate when what is desired can't be known in advance, or might change over time. Dependency management recipes support a variety of version selectors to help express these more complex constraints. These patterns assume that version numbers generally conform to Semantic Versioning.

tip

Maven dependency management recipes use the same artifact repositories your maven build is configured to use.

Supported dependency version selectors​

Latest release version​

The version selector latest.release can be specified to mean the most recent release (non-snapshot) version that can be found. The version selector latest.patch can be specified to mean the most recent patch version that can be found.

Version SelectorAvailable VersionsSelected Version
latest.release1.0.0, 2.0.0, 3.0.0-SNAPSHOT2.0.0
latest.patch1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.21.0.2

Hyphenated range​

The selector X.Y.Z - A.B.C specifies that versions between X.Y.Z and A.B.C can be selected. This is inclusive of X.Y.Z and A.B.C themselves. If multiple versions within the range are found, the latest is used. If not all digits are specified, then "0" is assumed for any omitted digits.

Version SelectorAvailable VersionsSelected Version
1.0.0-1.5.01.0.0, 1.5.0, 1.5.11.5.0
1-1.51.0.0, 1.5.0, 1.5.11.5.0

SetRange​

This is very similar to the above hyphenated range except that you can specify exclusion with ( / ), inclusion with [ / ], and you don't have to specify both a low and a high version. If multiple versions within the range are found, the latest is used. If not all digits are specified, then "0" is assumed for any omitted digits.

Version SelectorAvailable VersionsSelected Version
[1.0.0,1.5.0]1.0.0, 1.5.0, 1.5.11.5.0
[1.0.0,1.5.0)1.0.0, 1.5.0, 1.5.11.0.0
(1.0.0,1.5.0)1.0.0, 1.2.0 1.5.0, 1.5.11.2.0
[1,1.5.0)1.0.0, 1.5.0, 1.5.11.5.0
[1,)1.0.0, 1.5.0, 1.5.11.5.1
(,999)1.0.0, 1.5.0, 1.5.11.5.1

XRange​

Any of X, x, or * are interpreted as a wildcard and may be used instead of numeric values in the [major, minor, patch] tuple.

Version SelectorAvailable VersionsSelected Version
1.x.01.0.0, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 2.0.01.1.0
1.x.x1.0.0, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 2.0.01.1.1
x.x.x1.0.0, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 2.0.02.0.0

Tilde range​

Prefacing a version number with ~ invokes tilde range semantics. These allow patch-level changes if a minor version is specified in the selector. These allow minor-level changes if only the major version is specified.

Version SelectorAvailable VersionsSelected Version
~1.0.01.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 2.0.01.0.1
~1.01.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 2.0.01.0.1
~11.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 2.0.01.1.1

Caret range​

Prefacing a version number with ^ invokes caret range semantics. Selects the latest available version with the left-most, non-zero element in the [major, minor, patch] tuple.

Version SelectorAvailable VersionsSelected Version
^1.0.01.0.0, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.2.0, 2.0.01.2.0
^1.1.01.0.0, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.2.0, 2.0.01.1.1
^0.2.00.1.0, 0.2.0, 0.2.1, 0.3.00.2.1

Exact version​

Any version number which does not fit into one of the above categories is treated as an exact, literal version number.

Version SelectorAvailable VersionsSelected Version
1.0.00.9.0, 1.0.0, 1.1.11.0.0

Version patterns​

Some libraries are published with variants differentiated by version number. For example, "1.0.0-jre" and "1.0.0-android". To differentiate between variants of these libraries dependency management recipes accept a "versionPattern" parameter that can be filled in accordingly. This parameter is an exact string and has no wildcard behavior.

Version SelectorVersion PatternAvailable VersionsSelected Version
1.0.0jre1.0.0-jre, 1.0.0-android1.0.0-jre