In Maven, you can use Apache Maven Dependency Plugin, goal dependency:purge-local-repository to remove the project dependencies from the local repository, and re-download it again.
Terminal
$ mvn dependency:purge-local-repository
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] --------------< com.mkyong.examples:maven-code-coverage >---------------
[INFO] Building maven-code-coverage 1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] --------------------------------[ jar ]---------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-dependency-plugin:2.8:purge-local-repository (default-cli) @ maven-code-coverage ---
Downloading from central: https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/junit/jupiter/junit-jupiter-engine/5.3.1/junit-jupiter-engine-5.3.1.pom
Downloaded from central: https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/junit/jupiter/junit-jupiter-engine/5.3.1/junit-jupiter-engine-5.3.1.pom (2.4 kB at 2.1 kB/s)
Downloading from central: https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/apiguardian/apiguardian-api/1.0.0/apiguardian-api-1.0.0.pom
//...
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 8.086 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2018-11-20T15:22:28+08:00
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
How is different from deleting .m2 contents and running maven install again
.m2 contains the dependencies of any mvn project that you built on your machine, I suppose this plugin deletes only the ones involved in the project where you run the command
thanks a lot dear 🙂
How is it different from deleting .m2 folder contents and building again.