What is meant by Dependency Management?
Dependency management refers to the management of dependencies between various software components and libraries within a project. The goal of dependency management is to ensure that all required components are available in the correct versions and are compatible with each other. This is particularly important in complex software projects that use numerous external libraries and modules.
Typical functions of software in the "dependency management" area include:
- Dependency management: Identifying and managing all dependencies needed by a project, including libraries, frameworks, and modules.
- Version control: Specifying and controlling the versions of dependencies to ensure that the correct version is used.
- Automatic downloading and updating: Automatically downloading and updating dependencies from repositories to ensure that the latest and most secure versions are used.
- Conflict resolution: Detecting and resolving version conflicts between different dependencies to avoid compatibility issues.
- Transitive dependencies: Managing dependencies that are required by other dependencies to ensure that all indirect dependencies are also accounted for.
- Reproducible builds: Ensuring that builds are reproducible by recording the exact versions and sources of all dependencies.
- Security checking: Checking dependencies for known security vulnerabilities and providing updates or patches.
- License checking: Managing and verifying the licenses of dependencies to ensure that all used components are compliant with licensing requirements.
- Configuration files: Using configuration files (such as package.json, pom.xml, or requirements.txt) to specify dependencies and their versions.