Replace maven library with local one

Question

I have a dependency in pom on some library. I want to make some changes in it, test it locally and if it will work fine - deploy it to remote repo. So I have locally made some changes in this library, installed it as a jar, and want to replace in my main project remote library with the local one.

What is proper way to do it?

Answer 1

Maven first looks in your local repository in

C:\Users\User\.m2\repository

and if it can't find the library, then it looks in remote repos. If I understand your question correctly, this should be happening automatically as long as you point the correct version in the POM.

Answer 2

When resolving dependencies, Maven looks in your local repository ($HOME/.m2/repository). So if you have installed your modified dependency into your local repository (e.g. through mvn install) then when you build your main project, it will be used.

To make this more obvious, you may want to change the versions being used in both the library and your main project POM, so that you can be sure your version is being used for testing.

You may also find this question/answer useful: How do I force Maven to use my local repository rather than going out to remote repos to retrieve artifacts?