This page discusses the possibility of repository synchronization between the JBoss.org Maven repository and other Maven repositories such as central (http://repo1.maven.org).

Benefits of Repository Sync

The central maven repository is the only repository available by default in Maven.  Any other repository requires configuration in the user's settings.xml file.  This means that users can run their builds using only a default Maven installation.

Problems with Syncing the JBoss Repository

Many JBoss projects use rebuilt and modified thirdparty jar files.  These rebuilt jar files retain their original groupId and artifactId to allow Maven to resolve conflicts in the dependency tree.

The Maven central repository has two relevant policies related to uploading artifacts.

1. The organization uploading the artifacts controls the groupId.  This means JBoss community projects are uploaded to org.jboss or another JBoss community groupId.
2. The dependency tree of any uploaded artifact should be completely self contained in the central Maven repository.

This meanst that the JBoss community cannot upload rebuilt thirdparty jars (rule 1), and uploading JBoss projects without these thirdparty jars would not have a complete dependency tree.

Possible Solutions

1. Create a new Maven repository hosted by jboss.org which contains artifacts to be synced to central.  The requirements for deploying to this repository would be that all dependencies are contained in central.