Capability conflict not detected for a certain dependency ordering

[jjohannes]

If I have dependencies defined in a specific order (see reproducer) a capability conflict is not detected.

Expected Behavior

The capability conflict is detected and resolved as defined in the corresponding capabilities resolution strategy.

Current Behavior

The capability conflict is not detected. (Workaround: Change the order of dependencies.)

Context

This issue suddenly appeared when we added a dependency (Hibernate in this case) again in another place to make it visible there at compile time. Without the detection of the conflict, we got multiple Jars with the same classes on the classpath.

Steps to Reproduce

• Checkout reproducer project: https://github.com/jjohannes/gradle-demos/tree/main/capability-conflict-detection-issue
• Run $ ./gradlew :extension:dependencies --configuration=runtimeClasspath --scan and inspect the result
• The conflict between javax.transaction:javax.transaction-api:1.3 and org.jboss.spec.javax.transaction:jboss-transaction-api_1.2_spec:1.1.1.Final is not detected although both have the javax.transaction:javax.transaction-api capability
• Change the order of dependencies in app/build.gradle.kts - the conflict is now detected

Your Environment

Build scan URL - with issue: https://scans.gradle.com/s/sljcle3av5nae/dependencies?dependencies=transaction&expandAll&focusedDependency=WzAsMCwxMixbMCwwLFswXV1d
Build scan URL - issue disappeared after changing order: https://scans.gradle.com/s/zydyc3jau2jho/dependencies?dependencies=transaction&expandAll&focusedDependency=WzAsMCwyLFswLDAsWzBdXV0

[jjohannes]

We were hitting this again today. Maybe there is also a relationship to (some cases of) #14220.

[jjohannes]

Another reproducer. Without using any additional plugins, just a dependency to Guava which now publishes Gradle Metadata with capabilities: google/guava#6618 (comment)

[jjohannes]

Any chance fixing this may get some priority?

This is a quite severe issue for projects that aim for a clean dependency graph by utilizing capabilities to detect and resolve conflicts. If this mechanism is not reliable, it is very hard to use and might break suddenly when you add a new dependency.
If you are not super familiar with the inner working of things, you just keep wondering why suddenly a capability is no longer respected. And there is no clear workaround except for adding artificial dependencies to change the order of things in the graph and hope that that will keep things stable.

[jjohannes]

#14220 (comment)