The jar file is executable and provides a little tool to display how Maven parses and compares versions:

+----+
$ java -jar maven-artifact-*.jar 3.2.4-alpha-1 3.2.4-SNAPSHOT 3.2.4.0
Display parameters as parsed by Maven (in canonical form) and comparison result:
1. 3.2.4-alpha-1 == 3.2.4.alpha.1
   3.2.4-alpha-1 < 3.2.4-SNAPSHOT
2. 3.2.4-SNAPSHOT == 3.2.4.snapshot
   3.2.4-SNAPSHOT < 3.2.4.0
3. 3.2.4.0 == 3.2.4

        </parameter>
        <parameter>
          <name>repositories</name>
          <type>java.util.List</type>
          <required>true</required>
          <editable>false</editable>
        </parameter>
        <parameter>
          <name>resourceBundles</name>
          <type>java.util.List</type>
          <required>true</required>
          <editable>true</editable>
        </parameter>
        <parameter>

a dispatching to a particular plugin would occur because everything needs to be mediated through the host application. For a given action that is possible for a user to perform in the UI we need to know the URI that is to be used with its given parameters. That URI in turn must map internally to a method in a given component which belongs to a plugin. This mapping should actually be more generalized and it shouldn’t matter internally whether this maps to the core application or extension of the application...

*----+------+------+


**  Notice

  * after model interpolation, <<<$\{...\}>>> content can remain in the model that will be evaluated later
  when setting plugin parameters. This happens in particular with <<<settings.*>>> values for
  {{{../maven-settings/settings.html}Settings Model}},

  agent { node { label 'ubuntu' } }
  options {
    durabilityHint('PERFORMANCE_OPTIMIZED')
    buildDiscarder(logRotator(numToKeepStr: '20', artifactNumToKeepStr: '5'))
    timeout(time: 180, unit: 'MINUTES')
  }
  parameters {
    string( defaultValue: 'master', description: 'Core Its branch (default master)',
            name: 'ITS_BRANCH' )
  }
  stages {
    stage("Build Maven Core") {
      steps {

   per project settings can be defined by files in <<<.mvn/>>> directory:

   * <<<.mvn/jvm.config>>> containing jvm options,

   * <<<.mvn/maven.config>>> containing Maven command-line parameter,

   * <<<.mvn/extensions.xml>>> containing {{{./core-extensions.html}a list of extensions}},

 * since 3.5.0, output is colorized by default, with color disabled in batch mode: see