[External] : Re: Are modifiers `static` and `transitive` incompatible?

[Piotr P. Karwasz]

Hi Alex,

On Wed, 7 Feb 2024 at 21:45, Alex Buckley <alex.buckley at oracle.com> wrote:
> > in practice (`log4j-core`) code that depends
> > on optional dependencies is in separate packages and accessed through
> > reflection.
> > This should be a runtime-only dependency, but many users do not care
> > about the distinction between `compile` and `runtime` scope.
>
> Doesn't the POM of log4j-core express that some artifact ("an optional
> dependency") has `runtime` scope / is `provided` ?  Why is it relevant
> that users of log4j-core don't care about the distinction between scopes?

The POM of `log4j-core` has its dependencies properly declared: they
are either in the `provided` scope or in the `compile` scope with the
`optional` flag. These artifacts are required during the compilation
`log4j-core`, but their presence at runtime is optional.

The scope problem appears, when another project (let's say `foo`) uses
`log4j-core`. Since `log4j-core` is just an implementation of
`log4j-api` and provides a ServiceLoader service that `log4j-api`
consumes, 99% of the users could just declare `log4j-core` as
runtime-only dependency of `foo`. This IMHO the correct usage and
doesn't require any `requires` directives in the module descriptor of
`foo`.

Unfortunately the common practice is to add `log4j-core` in the
default (compile) Maven scope of `foo`. Even Spring Boot Starter does
it. If `foo` also declares `requires org.apache.logging.log4j.core;`
in its module descriptor, users start having compilation errors,
because Maven does not add the optional dependencies of `log4j-core`
to the compiler module-path.

Piotr

PS: As I stated before, these problems appear in version 2.x of
`log4j-core` that was retrofitted with JPMS. Version 3.x is designed
with JPMS in mind, so only annotation dependencies are `static`.