[MNG-6964] Maven version sorting is internally inconsistent

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 3.6.3
• Fix Version/s: 3.8.2, 4.0.0-alpha-2, 4.0.0
• Component/s: Core
• Assignee: Dennis Lundberg
• Reporter: David M. Lloyd
• Created: 20/Jul/20 22:26
• Updated: 28/Feb/23 15:46
• Resolved: 11/Aug/20 08:39

Description

There's a bug where version sorting is inconsistent. This manifests like this:

$ java -jar ~/local/apache-maven/lib/maven-artifact-3.6.3.jar 1-0.alpha 1
Display parameters as parsed by Maven (in canonical form) and comparison result:
1. 1-0.alpha == 1-0.alpha
   1-0.alpha == 1
2. 1 == 1

$ java -jar ~/local/apache-maven/lib/maven-artifact-3.6.3.jar 1-0.beta 1
Display parameters as parsed by Maven (in canonical form) and comparison result:
1. 1-0.beta == 1-0.beta
   1-0.beta == 1
2. 1 == 1

$ java -jar ~/local/apache-maven/lib/maven-artifact-3.6.3.jar 1-0.beta 1-0.alpha
Display parameters as parsed by Maven (in canonical form) and comparison result:
1. 1-0.beta == 1-0.beta
   1-0.beta > 1-0.alpha
2. 1-0.alpha == 1-0.alpha

Thus there is no correct total order: 1-0.beta > 1.0.alpha even though both 1-0.beta and 1-0.alpha are equal to 1.

I think this is likely due to a logical bug where any dot-separated segments following a zero or release (ga or final) is simply truncated in certain circumstances:

$ java -jar ~/local/apache-maven/lib/maven-artifact-3.6.3.jar 1-0.x 1-0
Display parameters as parsed by Maven (in canonical form) and comparison result:
1. 1-0.x == 1-0.x
   1-0.x == 1-0
2. 1-0 == 1

but

$ java -jar ~/local/apache-maven/lib/maven-artifact-3.6.3.jar 1-0.x-1 1-0-1
Display parameters as parsed by Maven (in canonical form) and comparison result:
1. 1-0.x-1 == 1-0.x-1
   1-0.x-1 > 1-0-1
2. 1-0-1 == 1-1

Issue Links

• is related to: MNG-7700 Improper canonicalization of versions
• is related to: MNG-7701 Incompatible version sorting changes
• relates to: MRESOLVER-334 Maven Resolver's GenericVersionScheme diverges from the spec
• relates to: MNG-6967 Improve the command line output from maven-artifact