001package org.apache.maven.model.locator;
002
003/*
004 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
005 * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
006 * distributed with this work for additional information
007 * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
008 * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
009 * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
010 * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
011 *
012 *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
013 *
014 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
015 * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
016 * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
017 * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
018 * specific language governing permissions and limitations
019 * under the License.
020 */
021
022import java.io.File;
023
024/**
025 * Locates a POM file within a project base directory.
026 * 
027 * @author Benjamin Bentmann
028 */
029public interface ModelLocator
030{
031
032    /**
033     * Locates the POM file within the specified project directory. In case the given project directory does not exist
034     * or does not contain a POM file, the return value indicates the expected path to the POM file. Sub directories of
035     * the project directory will not be considered when locating the POM file. The return value will be an absolute
036     * path if the project directory is given as an absolute path.
037     * 
038     * @param projectDirectory The (possibly non-existent) base directory to locate the POM file in, must not be {@code
039     *            null}.
040     * @return The path to the (possibly non-existent) POM file, never {@code null}.
041     */
042    File locatePom( File projectDirectory );
043
044}