Confusing warning "Dependency tree is partial lacking child nodes."

[metametadata]

Steps

1. pom.xml:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0    http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <groupId>foo</groupId>
     <artifactId>bar</artifactId>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
     <version>1.0.0</version>
     <name>foo</name>
     <dependencies>
       <dependency>
         <groupId>com.mysql</groupId>
         <artifactId>mysql-connector-j</artifactId>
         <version>9.0.0</version>
         <exclusions>
           <exclusion>
             <artifactId>protobuf-java</artifactId>
             <groupId>com.google.protobuf</groupId>
           </exclusion>
         </exclusions>
       </dependency>
     </dependencies>
   </project>

2. Command:

   CDXGEN_DEBUG_MODE=debug PREFER_MAVEN_DEPS_TREE=true cdxgen --fail-on-error --no-include-formulation --no-recurse --output sbom.json --type java

Actual

Output:

Executing 'mvn dependency:tree -DoutputFile=/var/folders/6d/qgj8m4xj4p74tjmrztw8fqb80000gn/T/cdxmvn-VwOjMn/mvn-tree.txt' in /foo
===== WARNINGS =====
[ 'Dependency tree is partial lacking child nodes.' ]

Expected

No warnings.

Notes

1. Assuming it's caused by the exclusion of protobuf, it's a valid situation when the transitive dependency is explicitly excluded by the developer. So the warning is unexpected.
2. It's unclear what the log tries to protect against.
3. The warning lacks information about what is lacking where exactly. So it's difficult to address.
4. "partial" should be "partially".
5. Version 10.9.11.

[prabhu]

@metametadata The particular message has gotten changed.

cdxgen/lib/helpers/validator.js

Line 226 in 8d33fd3

"Dependency tree is partial with multiple empty dependsOn attribute.",

Let me know if there is a better way to phrase the fact that the dependency tree is partial. The logic to determine this is below:

cdxgen/lib/helpers/utils.js

Line 12395 in 8d33fd3

export function isPartialTree(dependencies, componentsCount = 1) {

[metametadata]

Thank you for the reply.

Dependency tree is partial with multiple empty dependsOn attribute

The produced SBOM contains the next code:

{
  "ref": "pkg:maven/com.mysql/[email protected]?type=jar",
  "dependsOn": []
}

I suppose the empty dependsOn is considered a problem? Why? I'm afraid I don't understand why there should be any warning at all and thus I cannot propose a better phrasing except remarking that:

1. It's still unclear from the log why "partial" tree is a problem worth warning about.
2. There are no multiple dependsOn in my case.
3. "Attribute" should be "attributes".

In my understanding, excluding protobuf from mysql-connector-j is a valid scenario, there should be no warnings about it.

The logic to determine this is below

The formula Math.max(Math.round(componentsCount / 3), 1) is cryptic, e.g. it's unclear why there's a division by 3.

---

Let's put Maven exclusions aside and consider the next pom.xmls:

1. Project without any dependencies:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <groupId>foo</groupId>
     <artifactId>bar</artifactId>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
     <version>1.0.0</version>
     <name>foo</name>
     <dependencies>
     </dependencies>
   </project>

   It produces the warning too, but it's unexpected as it's a valid project.

2. Project with a single dependency:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <groupId>foo</groupId>
     <artifactId>bar</artifactId>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
     <version>1.0.0</version>
     <name>foo</name>
     <dependencies>
       <dependency>
         <groupId>com.google.protobuf</groupId>
         <artifactId>protobuf-java</artifactId>
         <version>4.28.2</version>
       </dependency>
     </dependencies>
   </project>

   This for sure valid case unexpectedly also produces a warning.

[prabhu]

Will improve this. There must be some heuristics to evaluate if the given dependency tree is complete.

[metametadata]

Still reproducible (i.e. there's a warning printed unexpectedly) in v10.10.7 for the next valid POMs:

1. Project with a single software.amazon.awssdk/ec2 dep:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
      <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
      <groupId>foo</groupId>
      <artifactId>bar</artifactId>
      <packaging>jar</packaging>
      <version>1.0.0</version>
      <name>foo</name>
      <dependencies>
        <dependency>
          <groupId>software.amazon.awssdk</groupId>
          <artifactId>ec2</artifactId>
          <version>2.27.1</version>
        </dependency>
      </dependencies>
    </project>

   Similarly reproducible for single deps software.amazon.awssdk/ec2instanceconnect and software.amazon.awssdk/ecs.

2. Project with a single leiningen dep:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
      <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
        <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
        <groupId>foo</groupId>
        <artifactId>bar</artifactId>
        <packaging>jar</packaging>
        <version>1.0.0</version>
        <name>foo</name>
        <repositories>
          <repository>
            <id>clojars</id>
            <url>https://repo.clojars.org/</url>
            <snapshots>
              <enabled>true</enabled>
            </snapshots>
            <releases>
              <enabled>true</enabled>
            </releases>
          </repository>
        </repositories>
        <dependencies>
          <dependency>
            <groupId>leiningen</groupId>
            <artifactId>leiningen</artifactId>
            <version>2.11.2</version>
          </dependency>
        </dependencies>
      </project>