Maven: Show dependency tree for specific artifact without adding it to pom

Question

For showing the dependency tree of an existing project (with a pom.xml), there's mvn dependency:tree.

But sometimes, I want to have a look at the dependencies without having to create a pom.xml and adding the dependency there.

So, is there a command for showing the dependency tree of a specific groupId:artifactId:version without having an existing project?

(I'd also be happy if there is another tool that has something for this, maybe Gradle.)

Answer 1

You definitely need a pom for resolving dependencies, that's where dependency information is stored. But you can workaround having a project:

1. Get the pom of your artifact:

   mvn dependency:get \
   -Dartifact=groupId:artifactId:version:pom \
   -DremoteRepositories=default::http://repo.url... \
   -Dtransitive=false -Ddest=pom.xml
   

2. Run mvn dependency:tree.

This worked for me. Or using dependency:copy:

1. Run dependency:copy:

   mvn dependency:copy \
   -Dartifact=groupId:artifactId:version:pom \
   -DoutputDirectory=.
   

2. mv artifactId-version.pom pom.xml.

3. Run mvn dependency:tree.