Reference Count Maven Plugin

Overview

• Introduction
• Usage
• Limitations
• Roadmap

Project Documentation

• Project Information

Known Limitations (Caveats)

As a static analysis tool, this plugin has certain limitations:

• Reflection: References created dynamically at runtime via Class.forName() or other reflection mechanisms cannot be detected. A library might be reported as unused even if it is essential for the application to function.
• Runtime Frameworks: Frameworks that rely heavily on proxies or runtime code generation (e.g., Spring, Hibernate) can obscure the true usage of dependencies. The analysis of the bytecode in target/classes may not provide a complete picture in such cases.
• Transitive Dependencies: The current version analyzes all dependencies, including transitive ones. This can make the report verbose. A future enhancement could focus the analysis on directly declared dependencies.