Maven - Dependency Inheritance - Provided - maven-2

Question

I make use of dependency POMs which I will then go and include into another projects as as dependency. The problem I am having is while it aggregates the POM with those dependencies, it appears when I declare dependencies of scope, provided, those aren't included.
Is it possible to include provided dependencies in dependency POMs with a scope of provided? I often declare what APIs I need and then include the implementation as a runtime dependency.

Answer 1

If a dependency is provided why can't that dependency be inherited with the same scope so I don't have to declare it?
It is inherited with the same scope. Given the following parent pom.xml:
<project>
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.stackoverflow.Q3597684</groupId>
<artifactId>root</artifactId>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>Q3597684 - Root</name>
<packaging>pom</packaging>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
<artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
<version>2.5</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>3.8.1</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</project>
And the following pom.xml that inherits from the root artifact:
<project>
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<parent>
<artifactId>root</artifactId>
<groupId>com.stackoverflow.Q3597684</groupId>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
</parent>
<artifactId>child</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<name>Q3597684 - Child</name>
<dependencies/>
</project>
Running mvn dependency:tree from the child gives the following output:
$ mvn dependency:tree[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'dependency'.
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Q3597684 - Child
[INFO] task-segment: [dependency:tree]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] [dependency:tree {execution: default-cli}]
[INFO] com.stackoverflow.Q3597684:child:war:1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] +- javax.servlet:servlet-api:jar:2.5:provided
[INFO] \- junit:junit:jar:3.8.1:test
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
The provided servlet-api is there, as expected.
Are you maybe (mis)using the dependencyManagement section?