nexus-mass-deletion

Table of Contents

• 1. Housekeeping for Sonatype Nexus 2.x repository server via REST API
• 2. Installation
• 3. Usage
  • 3.1. Options
• 4. Scenarios
• 5. Constant Maven groups
• 6. Shuffling groups
• 7. Logging
• 8. TODO
• 9. Versioning
• 10. License

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL
NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
RFC 2119.

1. Housekeeping for Sonatype Nexus 2.x repository server via REST API

Nexus supports some housekeeping scheduled tasks, but some use cases are not covered. Especially when it comes to Maven releases in private repositories, old artifacts can be removed after a certain time. These releases have to be selectively picked in order to not remove artifacts that are still required. This commandline utility uses the Nexus REST API to perform a GAV search, optionally including wildcards, and returns the results. Once the GAV fits, --delete will actually remove them remotely.

2. Installation

% go get github/jhinrichsen/nexus-mass-deletion
% cd ${HOME}/go/src/github/jhinrichsen/nexus-mass-deletion
% go install

The result is a standalone statically linked executable for your platform.

3. Usage

When called without any parameters, or -h, the Usage is displayed:

Usage: nexus-mass-deletion [options] [group...|@filename]
	@ references a file with groups separated  by newline
  -artifact string
    	Limit search to an artifact
  -count int
    	Nexus count parameter in REST interface (default 200)
  -delete
    	delete search results (otherwise only display them)
  -expect int
    	expected number of results (default 1)
  -keepLatest
    	keep lastest version (default true)
  -password string
    	Nexus password (default "admin123")
  -port string
    	Nexus port (default "8081")
  -repository string
    	Nexus repository ID, empty for global search (default "releases")
  -server string
    	Nexus server name (default "localhost")
  -throttle int
    	throttle number of actions (default 1)
  -username string
    	Nexus user (default "admin")
  -version string
    	Limit search to specific version (may include wildcards)

3.1. Options

server, port

Remote location of Nexus installation

expect

This is a safety net for removal. If a search returns more GAVs than expected, processing will not continue.

throttle

Throttle will stop processing after the specified number.

count

Nexus REST API supports a count parameter, but Nexus imposes a limit (either 100 or 200) which cannot be increased using count.

4. Scenarios

% nexus-mass-deletion --version='3.2.1' \
	com.mycorp.product1.batch \
	com.mycorp.product1.frontend \
	com.mycorp.product1.db

will issue a REST search request against localhost:8081 using username admin, password admin123, and show all matching GAV combinations on stdout.

% nexus-mass-deletion --version='3.2.1' --throttle=40 --delete \
	com.mycorp.product1.batch \
	com.mycorp.product1.frontend \
	com.mycorp.product1.db

will issue the same request, and delete all artifacts (jars, test jars, source jars, poms, checksums, …​) for the given group/ version combination. Processing will stop after 40 GAVs have been deleted (not counting packaging, extensions, and metadata).

% nexus-mass-deletion --keepLatest --throttle=40 --delete \
	com.mycorp.product1.batch \
	com.mycorp.product1.frontend \
	com.mycorp.product1.db

will delete all versions except for the latest one. Processing will stop after 40 GAVs have been deleted (not counting packaging, extensions, and metadata).

5. Constant Maven groups

If a mass deletion is operated on the same large number of groups, they can be kept in a file (each and every group on a separate line).

% cat product1-groups.txt
com.mycorp.product1.batch
com.mycorp.product1.frontend
com.mycorp.product1.db
% nexus-mass-deletion @product1-groups.txt		(1)

1. Read groups from file product1-groups.txt, separated by newline.

6. Shuffling groups

When Nexus removes all artifacts for a GAV, it automatically rewrites Maven metadata in the GAV hierarchy above to indicate that this version is not available any more. This takes some time, and multiple mass deletions run in parallel will eventually synchronize in this step. Processing then takes longer than deleting in a random order, so groups are shuffled before processing to minimize parallel processing overhead.

7. Logging

Some actions are logged, such as the internal HTTP DELETE URL. Logging happens on stderr which can easily be piped away using standard stderr redirection such as 2>/dev/null.

8. TODO

• Re-run based on the REST search response if more artifacts are available

• Make shuffle an option

9. Versioning

Long story short: semver.

10. License

MIT