What exactly is a Maven Snapshot and why do we need it?

dependency-management, java, maven

Solution

A snapshot version in Maven is one that has not been released.

The idea is that before a `1.0` release (or any other release) is done, there exists a `1.0-SNAPSHOT`. That version is what might become `1.0`. It's basically "`1.0` under development". This might be close to a real `1.0` release, or pretty far (right after the `0.9` release, for example).

The difference between a "real" version and a snapshot version is that snapshots might get updates. That means that downloading `1.0-SNAPSHOT` today might give a different file than downloading it yesterday or tomorrow.

Usually, snapshot dependencies should only exist during development and no released version (i.e. no non-snapshot) should have a dependency on a snapshot version.

Problem

Original source