[slf4j-user] slf4j-api 1.8.0-beta4 maven javadoc plugin regression when jpms is enabled

[Kim Christian Gaarder]

In attempting to release application X that depended on slf4j-api 1.8.0-beta4 using maven release plugin we discovered that we were not able to run the javadoc plugin part when the java-platform-module-system (JPMS) is enabled. The maven build fails with a “error: module not found: org.slf4j” error message. It’s worth noting that this was not a problem when using slf4j-api 1.8.0-beta1. I believe that the cause of this is when the module-info.java file was moved out of src/main/java and into the src/main/java9 folder and having the corresponding class file located elsewhere.

It's possible that the slf4j-api jar file is valid and that this is a problem with the maven javadoc plugin not recognizing modules that are defined in other ways than the most used straightforward one (placing module-info.class in the jar root) and that this issue belongs in the community developing the maven javadoc plugin. I wanted to raise the issue here first in case this is something you want to look at, after all the slf4j-api is used in a lot of projects.