Check for packages latest version in Ivy
<p>We use Ivy for dependency management. In order to guarantee stability and traceability, we fix version numbers for all dependencies in our ivy files, plus we use <code>transitive=false</code> to avoid dependency trees to grow uncontrolled. The second has only the disadvantage that it may require a few tests to complete the ivy file.</p>

<p>Since we fix version numbers, we don't get updated about the existence of a later version of a package. What we <strong>don't want</strong> is to get the freshest version of a dependency at build time. What <strong>we want</strong> is to periodically check for available updates and later decide whether and which packages to update.</p>

<p>As an example, here are our Spring dependencies as of 01/14/2016</p>

<pre><code>    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework"               name="spring-core"                      rev="4.2.4.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework"               name="spring-aop"                       rev="4.2.4.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework"               name="spring-beans"                     rev="4.2.4.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework"               name="spring-context"                   rev="4.2.4.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework"               name="spring-context-support"           rev="4.2.4.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework"               name="spring-expression"                rev="4.2.4.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework"               name="spring-jdbc"                      rev="4.2.4.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework"               name="spring-orm"                       rev="4.2.4.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework"               name="spring-tx"                        rev="4.2.4.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework"               name="spring-web"                       rev="4.2.4.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework"               name="spring-webmvc"                    rev="4.2.4.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework"               name="spring-test"                      rev="4.2.4.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="test-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework.plugin"        name="spring-plugin-core"               rev="1.2.0.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework.plugin"        name="spring-plugin-metadata"           rev="1.2.0.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework.batch"         name="spring-batch-core"                rev="3.0.6.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
    &lt;dependency org="org.springframework.batch"         name="spring-batch-infrastructure"      rev="3.0.6.RELEASE"     transitive="false"          conf="runtime-&gt;*"/&gt;
</code></pre>

<p>But we have a lot more. So I am asking if there is a smarter way to check for possible updates for all packages (we now have 101 packages).</p>

<p>Ant's <code>ivy:report</code> won't show the availability of a later version. Manually checking 101 packages on Maven is boring.</p>

<p>We also have a local Artifactory installation, I'm saying that if it could prove useful for purpose.</p>

<p>Any idea? What I would like to see is a report with current and latest version numbers of packages in an Ivy file</p>