Copying project dependencies

Project dependencies are the dependencies declared in your pom. To copy them with their transitive dependencies, use the dependency:copy-dependencies mojo and configure the plugin like the sample below:

<project>
  [...]
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.10.0</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>copy-dependencies</id>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
              <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/alternateLocation</outputDirectory>
              <overWriteReleases>false</overWriteReleases>
              <overWriteSnapshots>false</overWriteSnapshots>
              <overWriteIfNewer>true</overWriteIfNewer>
            </configuration>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  [...]
</project>

Excluding transitive dependencies

As mentioned, transitive dependencies are copied by default. However, they can also be excluded by setting the excludeTransitive property to true.

<project>
  [...]
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.10.0</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>copy-dependencies</id>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
              <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/alternateLocation</outputDirectory>
              <overWriteReleases>false</overWriteReleases>
              <overWriteSnapshots>true</overWriteSnapshots>
              <excludeTransitive>true</excludeTransitive>
            </configuration>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  [...]
</project>

Subtrees

By default, the pom is considered the root of the dependency tree, but it can be useful to get the jars of one dependency and all its transitive dependencies. This can be done by specifying one or more graphRoots.

<project>
  [...]
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.10.0</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>copy-dependencies</id>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
              <graphRoots>
                <graphRoot>
                              <groupId>org.apache.maven.resolver</groupId>
                              <artifactId>maven-resolver-supplier-mvn4</artifactId>
                </graphRoot>
              </graphRoots>
              <!-- move to separate directory, so it can get its own classloader -->
              <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/lib-ext/maven-resolver-supplier-mvn4</outputDirectory>
            </configuration>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  [...]
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.apache.maven.resolver</groupId>
      <artifactId>maven-resolver-supplier-mvn4</artifactId>
      <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</project>