Finding Source JARs in Maven Repositories

Maven is a popular package management tool for Java projects, offering an extensive repository of libraries and their dependencies. Often, developers require access to the source code or Javadocs associated with these dependencies for debugging or documentation purposes.

While Maven repositories typically store binary JAR files, there is a way to retrieve the corresponding source and Javadoc JARs using Maven plugins.

Solution

To obtain the source code for dependencies, execute the following command:

mvn dependency:sources

This command will attempt to download the source JARs for all dependencies declared in the Maven project's pom.xml file.

To retrieve Javadocs, use the following command:

mvn dependency:resolve -Dclassifier=javadoc

This command downloads Javadocs JARs for compatible dependencies. It's important to note that not all libraries have source code or Javadocs available in the repository.

Additional Options

If you wish to download the artifacts for a specific dependency, use the -DincludeArtifactIds flag in conjunction with the target dependency's artifact ID:

mvn dependency:sources -DincludeArtifactIds=target-artifactId
mvn dependency:resolve -Dclassifier=javadoc -DincludeArtifactIds=target-artifactId

Resources

• Documentation: https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-dependency-plugin/sources-mojo.html
• Article: https://tedwise.com/2010/01/27/maven-micro-tip-get-sources-and-javadocs/