versions:display-dependency-updates: Usage & Errors
See which dependencies have newer versions - read-only, no POM edits.
versions:display-dependency-updates is a goal of the versions-maven-plugin that scans your declared dependencies and reports which ones have newer versions available in the configured repositories. It only prints a report and does not modify the POM.
What it does
The goal compares each dependency’s version against the latest available and prints the upgrade candidates. Sibling goals can act on the results: versions:use-latest-releases updates the POM, and versions:display-plugin-updates does the same for plugins.
Common usage
mvn versions:display-dependency-updates
mvn versions:display-plugin-updates
mvn versions:use-latest-releases # actually bump versions in the POM
mvn versions:revert # undo a versions:* changeCommon error in CI (and the fix)
Symptom: the report is empty or stale, or the goal "finds no updates" behind a corporate mirror. Cause: the plugin queries the repositories Maven sees; a mirror that only proxies an internal repo will not surface public updates, and metadata may be cached. Fix: ensure the relevant repositories are reachable, force fresh metadata with -U, and point the plugin at the right repos via settings.xml mirrors.