DevOps Tools for Java Developers

Chapter 6. Package Management

Ixchel Ruiz

Somewhere in the world, as you read this sentence, a line of code is being written. This line of code will ultimately become part of an artifact that will become a building block used internally by an organization in one or more enterprise products, or shared via a public repository, most notably Maven Central for Java and Kotlin libraries.

More libraries, binaries, and artifacts are available today than ever before, and this collection will continue to grow as developers around the world continue their next generation of products and services. Handling and managing these artifacts require more effort now than before—with an ever-increasing number of dependencies creating a complicated web of connectedness. Using an incorrect version of an artifact is an easy trap to fall into, causing confusion and broken builds, and ultimately thwarting carefully planned project release dates.

It’s more important than ever for developers to understand not only the function and the idiosyncrasies of the source code directly in front of them, but also how their projects are packaged and how the building blocks are assembled into the final product. Having a deep understanding of the build process itself and how our automated build tools function under the hood is crucial to avert delays and hours of unnecessary troubleshooting—not to mention prevent a large category of bugs escaping into production.

Access to troves of third-party resources that provide ...