Maven Mirror - how to bypass if mirror host is not available?

Question

I have a maven mirror repository (Archiva) e.g.

<settings>
   <mirrors>     
        <mirror>
        <id>archiva</id>
        <mirrorOf>*</mirrorOf>
        <url>http://myMirrorHost:8080/archiva/repository/internal</url>     
    </mirror>
       </mirrors>
       ...

However this is behind a VPN, and sometimes I rather not use it / can't connect to the VPM

The issue is when building outside the VPN, I get this error

myMirrorHost: Unknown host myMirrorHost -> [Help 1]

When I would like it instead to timeout / not use the mirror if not found

Is that possible?

Answer 1

I had a similar situation and I changed the mirror settings to mirror central, not *:

<mirrors>     
 <mirror>
  <id>archiva</id>
  <mirrorOf>central</mirrorOf>
  <url>http://myMirrorHost:8080/archiva/repository/internal</url>     
 </mirror>
</mirrors>

Then in a profile, I define another repository, e.g. ibiblio:

<profile>
  <id>myprofile</id>

 <activation>
  <activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
 </activation>

  <repositories>
    <repository>
      <id>ibiblio.org</id>
       <name>ibiblio Mirror of http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/</name>
       <url>http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/maven2</url> 
    </repository>
  </repositories>  
</profile>

Now when something is not found in the mirror, or the mirror host is not reachable, maven tries the other repository (which is a mirror of central).