* project. In spite of the 'throws' declaration on this API, this method has never thrown an exception since Maven
     * 3.0.x. Historically, it logged and ignored a second addition of the same g/a/v/c/t. Now it replaces the file for
     * the artifact, so that plugins (e.g. shade) can change the pathname of the file for a particular set of
     * coordinates.
     *

     *
     * @param first the first version.
     * @param second the second version.
     * @return negative if the first version is newer than the second version, zero if they are the same or positive if
     * the second version is the newer.
     */
    private static int compareModelVersions(String first, String second) {
        // we use a dedicated comparator because we control our model version scheme.