Is there a standard place to store Spring library jar files?

Question

I downloaded Spring 3.0.2 with dependencies and found that it contains 405 jar files. I usually keep third-party libraries in the "lib" subdirectory, but there are so many Spring flags that it’s wise to keep them separate so that they don’t load other libraries and make it easy to upgrade.

I suspect that I want to keep the full set of libraries in Subversion, but only expand the subset used.

Spring users have a standard way to solve this problem?

Answer 1

The vast majority of "dependencies" are not needed; it is truly a "distribution of the kitchen sink." I would suggest just putting Spring JARs in liband adding only others when and when you need them.

In fact, you can choose which Spring JARS you need - it splits into several, so you can choose the appropriate ones. The distribution should have a readme file that describes which JARs you need and what they depend on.

Answer 2

If you insist on using Ant, you can use its companion, Ivy, to manage dependencies. Personally, I have been a pretty happy Maven user for many years.

Answer 3

If you are building using Maven, you can specify that you need specific Spring libraries. Maven will upload these and claimed dependencies to your local repository and pack these banks into your final solution. You do not need to declare anything but a top-level dependency on Spring.