how do I get sbt to use a local maven proxy repository (Nexus)?

Question

I've got an sbt (Scala) project that currently pulls artifacts from the web. We'd like to move towards a corporate-standardized Nexus repository that would cache artifacts. From the Nexus documentation, I understand how to do that for Maven projects. But sbt obviously uses a different approach. (I understand Ivy is involved somehow, but I've never used it and don't understand how it works.)

How do I tell sbt and/or the underlying Ivy to use the corporate Nexus repository system for all dependencies? I'd like the answer to use some sort of project-level configuration file, so that new clones of our source repository will automatically use the proxy. (I.e., mucking about with per-user config files in a dot-directory is not viable.)

Thanks!

Answer 1

Step 1: Follow the instructions at Detailed Topics: Proxy Repositories, which I have summarised and added to below:

1. (If you are using Artifactory, you can skip this step.) Create an entirely separate Maven proxy repository (or group) on your corporate Maven repository, to proxy ivy-style repositories such as these two important ones:

   • http://repo.typesafe.com/typesafe/ivy-releases/
   • http://repo.scala-sbt.org/scalasbt/sbt-plugin-releases/

   This is needed because some repository managers cannot handle Ivy-style and Maven-style repositories being mixed together.

2. Create a file repositories, listing both your main corporate repository and any extra one that you created in step 1, in the format shown below:

   [repositories]   my-maven-proxy-releases: http://repo.example.com/maven-releases/   my-ivy-proxy-releases: http://repo.example.com/ivy-releases/, [organization]/[module]/(scala_[scalaVersion]/)(sbt_[sbtVersion]/)[revision]/[type]s/[artifact](-[classifier]).[ext] 

3. Either save that file in the .sbt directory inside your home directory, or specify it on the sbt command line:

   sbt -Dsbt.repository.config=<path-to-your-repo-file> 

Good news for those using older versions of sbt: Even though, in the sbt 0.12.0 launcher jar at least, the boot properties files for older sbt versions don't contain the required line (the one that mentions repository.config), it will still work for those versions of sbt if you edit those files to add the required line, and repackage them into the sbt 0.12.0 launcher jar! This is because the feature is implemented in the launcher, not in sbt itself. And the sbt 0.12.0 launcher is claimed to be able to launch all versions of sbt, right back to 0.7!

Step 2: To make sure external repositories are not being used, remove the default repositories from your resolvers. This can be done in one of two ways:

1. Add the command line option -Dsbt.override.build.repos=true mentioned on the Detailed Topics page above. This will cause the repositories you specified in the file to override any repositories specified in any of your sbt files. This might only work in sbt 0.12 and above, though - I haven't tried it yet.
2. Use fullResolvers := Seq( resolver(s) for your corporate maven repositories ) in your build files, instead of resolvers ++= or resolvers := or whatever you used to use.

Answer 2

OK, with some help from Mark Harrah on the sbt mailing list, I have an answer that works.

My build class now looks like the following (plus some other repos):

import sbt._  //By extending DefaultWebProject, we get Jetty support class OurApplication(info: ProjectInfo) extends DefaultWebProject(info) {    // This skips adding the default repositories and only uses the ones you added   // explicitly. --Mark Harrah   override def repositories = Set("OurNexus" at "http://our.nexus.server:9001/nexus/content/groups/public/")    override def ivyRepositories = Seq(Resolver.defaultLocal(None)) ++ repositories    /* Squeryl */   val squeryl = "org.squeryl" % "squeryl_2.8.0.RC3" % "0.9.4beta5"    /* DATE4J */   val date4j = "hirondelle.date4j" % "date4j" % "1.0" from "http://www.date4j.net/date4j.jar"    // etc } 

Now, if I delete the Squeryl tree from my machine's .ivy2/cache directory, sbt tries to grab it from the Nexus tree with the appropriate URL. Problem solved!