# Multiple Resolvers This tutorial is an example of how modules can be retrieved by multiple resolvers. Using multiple resolvers can be useful in many contexts. For example: separating integration builds from releases using a public repository for third party modules and a private one for internal modules use a repository for storing modules which are not accurate in an unmanaged public repository use a local repository to expose builds made on one developer’s station In Ivy, the use of multiple resolvers is supported by a compound resolver called the chain resolver. In our example, we will simply show you how to use two resolvers, one for a local repository and one using the Maven 2 repository. ## Project Description ### The project: chained-resolvers The project is very simple and contains only one simple class: `example.Hello`. It depends on two libraries: Apache’s `commons-lang` and a custom library named `test` (sources are included in `test-1.0.jar` file). The test library is used by the project to uppercase a string, and `commons-lang` is used to capitalize the same string. Here is the content of the project: build.xml: the Ant build file for the project ivy.xml: the Ivy project file src/example/Hello.java: the only class of the project Let’s have a look at the ivy.xml file:
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    <ivy-module version="1.0">
        <info organisation="org.apache" module="chained-resolvers"/>
        <dependencies>
            <dependency org="commons-lang" name="commons-lang" rev="2.6" conf="default"/>
            <dependency name="test" rev="1.0"/>
        </dependencies>
    </ivy-module>
As we’d expect, the Ivy file declares this module to be dependent on the two libraries it uses: `commons-lang` and `test`. Note that we didn’t specify the `org` for the dependency `test`. When we exclude `org`, Ivy assumes it is in the same `org` as the declaring module. (in this example, it’s `org.apache`). ### The Ivy Settings The settings are defined in the `ivysettings.xml` file located in the `settings` directory of the project. Below are its contents, followed by an explanation of what it’s doing.
    <!--
       Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
       or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
       distributed with this work for additional information
       regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
       to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
       "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
       with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at

         https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

       Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
       software distributed under the License is distributed on an
       "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
       KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
       specific language governing permissions and limitations
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    -->
    <ivysettings>
      <settings defaultResolver="chain-example"/>
      <resolvers>
        <chain name="chain-example">
          <filesystem name="libraries">
            <artifact pattern="${ivy.settings.dir}/repository/[artifact]-[revision].[ext]"/>
          </filesystem>
          <ibiblio name="ibiblio" m2compatible="true"/>
        </chain>
      </resolvers>
    </ivysettings>
### The settings tag This tag initializes Ivy with some parameters. Here only one parameter is set, the name of the resolver to use by default. ### The resolvers tag The resolvers section defines the list of resolvers that Ivy will use to locate artifacts. In our example, we have only one resolver named `chain-example`, which is unique in that it defines a list (hence a chain) of resolvers. The resolvers in this chain are: `libraries` : It is a filesystem resolver, so looks at a directory structure to retrieve the artifacts. This one is configured to look in the `repository` sub directory of the directory that contains the `ivysettings.xml` file. `ibiblio` : It looks in the ibiblio Maven repository to retrieve the artifacts. That’s it, we have just configured a chain of resolvers! ## Walkthrough ### Step 1: Preparation Open a shell (or command line) window, and go to the `src/example/chained-resolvers` directory. ### Step 2: clean directory tree On the prompt type: `ant` This will clean up the entire project directory tree and Ivy cache. You can do this each time you want to clean up this example.
Note | In almost all examples, we provide a `clean` target, as the default target. Since most examples use the same Ivy cache, you will clean the whole Ivy cache each time you call this target. Cleaning the Ivy cache is something you can do without fear (except for performance): it’s only a cache, so everything can be (and should be) obtained again from repositories. This may sound strange to those coming from Maven 2 land. But remember that in Ivy, the cache is not a local repository and the two are completely isolated.
### Step 3: run the project Go to `chained-resolvers` project directory. And simply run `ant`.
    [ivy@apache:/ivy/chained-resolvers/chainedresolvers-project]$ ant
    Buildfile: /ivy/chained-resolvers/chainedresolvers-project/build.xml

    resolve:
    [ivy:retrieve] :: Apache Ivy 2.6.0 - 20260712075753 :: https://ant.apache.org/ivy/ ::
    [ivy:retrieve] :: loading settings :: file = /ivy/chained-resolvers/settings/ivysettings.xml
    [ivy:retrieve] :: resolving dependencies :: org.apache#chained-resolvers;working@apache
    [ivy:retrieve] 	confs: [default]
    [ivy:retrieve] 	found commons-lang#commons-lang;2.6 in ibiblio
    [ivy:retrieve] 	found org.apache#test;1.0 in libraries
    [ivy:retrieve] downloading https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/commons-lang/commons-lang/2.6/commons-lang-2.6.jar ...
    [ivy:retrieve] .............................................................................. (277kB)
    [ivy:retrieve] .. (0kB)
    [ivy:retrieve] 	[SUCCESSFUL ] commons-lang#commons-lang;2.6!commons-lang.jar (176ms)
    [ivy:retrieve] downloading /ivy/chained-resolvers/settings/repository/test-1.0.jar ...
    [ivy:retrieve] .. (1kB)
    [ivy:retrieve] 	[SUCCESSFUL ] org.apache#test;1.0!test.jar (3ms)
    [ivy:retrieve] :: resolution report :: resolve 1883ms :: artifacts dl 184ms
    	---------------------------------------------------------------------
    	|                  |            modules            ||   artifacts   |
    	|       conf       | number| search|dwnlded|evicted|| number|dwnlded|
    	---------------------------------------------------------------------
    	|      default     |   2   |   2   |   1   |   0   ||   2   |   2   |
    	---------------------------------------------------------------------
    [ivy:retrieve] :: retrieving :: org.apache#chained-resolvers
    [ivy:retrieve] 	confs: [default]
    [ivy:retrieve] 	2 artifacts copied, 0 already retrieved (278kB/10ms)

    run:
        [mkdir] Created dir: /ivy/chained-resolvers/chainedresolvers-project/build
        [javac] /ivy/chained-resolvers/chainedresolvers-project/build.xml:58: warning: 'includeantruntime' was not set, defaulting to build.sysclasspath=last; set to false for repeatable builds
        [javac] Compiling 1 source file to /ivy/chained-resolvers/chainedresolvers-project/build
         [java] standard message :example world !
         [java] capitalized by org.apache.commons.lang.WordUtils : Example World !
         [java] upperCased by test.StringUtils : EXAMPLE WORLD !

    BUILD SUCCESSFUL
    Total time: 3 seconds
We can see in the log of the resolve task, that the two dependencies have been retrieved (2 artifacts) and copied to the Ivy cache directory (2 downloaded). Also notice that the `run` Ant target succeeded in using both `commons-lang.jar` coming from the ibiblio repository and `test.jar` coming from the local repository. ## Going further This very simple example helps us see how to set up two resolvers in a chain. The chain resolver’s reference documentation is available for those who would like to know all the features offered by this resolver. Below are a few more interesting things worth knowing about chain resolvers. After reading them, go ahead and try tweaking this example using your new wealth of knowledge! a chain is not limited to two nested resolvers, you can use as many as you want by setting `returnFirst="true"`, you can have a chain which stops as soon as it has found a result for a given module by setting `dual="true"`, the full chain will be used both for module descriptors and artifacts, while setting `dual="false"`, the resolver in the chain which found the module descriptor (if any) is also used for artifacts