Ordering Ivy dependencies -

i'm struggling head around exact behaviour of exclusions in ivy.

in following ivy file, why putting commons-logging before log4j pull in javax.activation , javax.mail log4j whereas putting after doesn't.

<ivy-module version="2.0">     <info organisation="test" module="test" />      <configurations defaultconfmapping="default->runtime(*)" />      <dependencies>         <dependency org="log4j" name="log4j" rev="1.2.15">             <exclude org="javax.activation" />             <exclude org="javax.mail" />         </dependency>         <dependency org="commons-logging" name="commons-logging" rev="1.1" />          <exclude org="com.sun.jdmk" />         <exclude org="com.sun.jmx" />         <exclude org="javax.jms" />     </dependencies> </ivy-module> 

the activation , mail jars dependencies of commons logging, yet you've excluded them on log4j dependency...

when use single configuration sends mixed message ivy, should excluded or not? following lot more explicit:

<dependencies>     <dependency org="log4j" name="log4j" rev="1.2.15"/>     <dependency org="commons-logging" name="commons-logging" rev="1.1" />      <exclude org="javax.activation" />     <exclude org="javax.mail" />         <exclude org="com.sun.jdmk" />     <exclude org="com.sun.jmx" />     <exclude org="javax.jms" /> </dependencies> 

it's less confusing when excludes set globally.

if want keep dependency resolution separate you'll need set more 1 configuration (think of these dependency sets):

<ivy-module version="2.0">     <info organisation="test" module="test" />      <configurations>        <conf name="log4j_deps" description="log4j dependencies"/>        <conf name="commons_deps" description="commons-logging dependencies"/>     </configurations>      <dependencies>          <dependency org="log4j" name="log4j" rev="1.2.15" conf="log4j_deps->runtime">             <exclude org="javax.activation" />             <exclude org="javax.mail" />         </dependency>          <dependency org="commons-logging" name="commons-logging" rev="1.1" conf="commons_deps->runtime"/>          <exclude org="com.sun.jdmk" />         <exclude org="com.sun.jmx" />         <exclude org="javax.jms" />     </dependencies> </ivy-module> 

switching around dependency tags have no effect now, because dependency resolution explicit.

• log4j , dependencies associated log4j_deps configuration
• commons dependencies placed onto commons_deps configuration.