Advancing dependency versions

There are a number of goals which can be used to advance dependency versions:

versions:use-next-releases searches the pom for all non-SNAPSHOT versions which have been a newer release and replaces them with the next release version.
versions:use-latest-releases searches the pom for all non-SNAPSHOT versions which have been a newer release and replaces them with the latest release version.
versions:use-next-snapshots searches the pom for all non-SNAPSHOT versions which have been a newer -SNAPSHOT version and replaces them with the next -SNAPSHOT version.
versions:use-latest-snapshots searches the pom for all non-SNAPSHOT versions which have been a newer -SNAPSHOT version and replaces them with the latest -SNAPSHOT version.
versions:use-next-versions searches the pom for all versions which have been a newer version and replaces them with the next version. versions:use-latest-versions searches the pom for all versions which have been a newer version and replaces them with the latest version.

All of these goals share a common set of parameters.

Deciding which goal to use

The following matrix should help decide which goal(s) to use:

Goal	Modifies Release dependencies	Modifies -SNAPSHOT dependencies	Considers releases	Considers -SNAPSHOTs	Picks Next	Picks Latest
use-next-releases		Yes	Yes		Yes
use-latest-releases		Yes	Yes			Yes
use-next-snapshots	Yes			Yes	Yes
use-latest-snapshots	Yes			Yes		Yes
use-next-versions	Yes	Yes	Yes	If -DallowSnapshots=true	Yes
use-latest-versions	Yes	Yes	Yes	If -DallowSnapshots=true		Yes

The columns in the above goal matrix are as follows:

Modified Release dependencies when scanning the pom.xml for dependency to update, include those dependencies which are for release versions (i.e. non-SNAPSHOT versions).
Modified -SNAPSHOT dependencies when scanning the pom.xml for dependency to update, include those dependencies which are for -SNAPSHOT versions.
Considers releases when building the list of newer versions of a dependency, include release versions (i.e. non-SNAPSHOT versions) in the list.
Considers releases when building the list of newer versions of a dependency, include -SNAPSHOT versions in the list.
Picks Next when the list of newer versions is sorted in increasing order, pick the first newer version in the list, i.e. the oldest newer version available, also known as the “next” version.
Picks Latest when the list of newer versions is sorted in increasing order, pick the last newer version in the list, i.e. the newest version available, also known as the “latest” version.

Controlling which dependencies are processed

You can restrict which dependencies should be processed. For example, the following will only match dependencies that match the groupId “org.codehaus.plexus” and artifactId “plexus-utils”

mvn versions:use-next-releases -Dincludes=org.codehaus.plexus:plexus-utils

The includes and excludes parameters follow the format groupId:artifactId:type:classifier. Use a comma separated separated list to specify multiple includes. Wildcards (*) can also be used to match multiple values.

This example will match anything with the groupId “org.codehaus.plexus” and anything with the groupId and artifactId matching “junit”.

mvn versions:use-next-releases -Dincludes=org.codehaus.plexus:*,junit:junit

You can pre-configure defaults for includes and excludes in your pom.xml if there is a specific set of dependencies that you need to track on a regular basis, e.g.

<project>
  ...
  <build>
    ...
    <plugins>
      ...
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
        <artifactId>versions-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.16.2</version>
        <configuration>
          ...
          <includes>
            <include>org.codehaus.plexus:*</include>
            <include>junit:junit</include>
          </includes>
          ...
          <excludes>
            <exclude>org.codehaus.plexus:plexus-utils</exclude>
          </excludes>
          ...
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
      ...
    </plugins>
    ...
  </build>
  ...
</project>

By default, both the project/dependencyManagment and project/dependencies sections will be processed. You can use the processDependencies and processDependencyManagement parameters to control which sections are processed.

This example will only process the project/dependencyManagment section of your pom:

mvn versions:use-next-releases -DprocessDependencies=false

While this example will only process the project/dependencies section of your pom:

mvn versions:use-next-releases -DprocessDependencyManagement=false