Difference between maven scope compile and provided for JAR packaging

• compile

This is the default scope, used if none is specified. Compile dependencies are available in all classpaths of a project. Furthermore, those dependencies are propagated to dependent projects.

• provided

This is much like compile, but indicates you expect the JDK or a container to provide the dependency at runtime. For example, when building a web application for the Java Enterprise Edition, you would set the dependency on the Servlet API and related Java EE APIs to scope provided because the web container provides those classes. This scope is only available on the compilation and test classpath, and is not transitive.

Compile means that you need the JAR for compiling and running the app. For a web application, as an example, the JAR will be placed in the WEB-INF/lib directory.

Provided means that you need the JAR for compiling, but at run time there is already a JAR provided by the environment so you don't need it packaged with your app. For a web app, this means that the JAR file will not be placed into the WEB-INF/lib directory.

For a web app, if the app server already provides the JAR (or its functionality), then use "provided" otherwise use "compile"