reported via forum: https://discuss.gradle.org/t/misleading-dependency-tree-when-exclude-module/15318
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When I'm using this simple gradle build apply plugin: 'java' repositories { mavenCentral() } dependencies { compile ("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web:1.3.3.RELEASE") { exclude group: "org.springframework.boot", module: "spring-boot-starter-tomcat" } // A compile ("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-hateoas:1.3.3.RELEASE") // B // compile ("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-hateoas") { // exclude group: "org.springframework.boot", module: "spring-boot-starter-web" // } }
Then I'm getting dependency tree in which is visible that 'spring-boot-starter-web' is pulling 'spring-boot-starter-tomcat' but that module is excluded.
Real reason why is there because dependency spring-boot-starter-hateoas is pulling 'spring-boot-starter-web'. And option A is not excluding that dependency as option B.
With this configuration (option A) is hard to determine which main dependency is pulling spring-boot-starter-tomcat, because this dependency is not listed as transitive dependency of 'spring-boot-starter-hateoas'
--- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-hateoas:1.3.3.RELEASE
+--- org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web:1.3.3.RELEASE 
+--- org.springframework.hateoas:spring-hateoas:0.19.0.RELEASE