Repository Types

A proxy repository is a repository that is linked to another remote repository. When someone requests a component, the request first goes to the proxy repository to see if the component is available in its local content. If the component is not locally available in the proxy repository, Nexus Repository then looks for the component in the remote repository. Nexus Repository then retrieves and stores this component locally in the proxy repository. Should someone request this same component again, Nexus Repository will now be able to find it in the proxy repository and fulfill the request via local storage. This eliminates the network bandwidth and time overhead of retrieving the component from the remote repository again.

By default, Sonatype Nexus Repository ships with the following configured proxy repositories:

maven-central

This proxy repository accesses the Central Repository, formerly known as Maven Central. It is the default component repository built into Apache Maven and is well-supported by other build tools like Gradle, SBT or Ant/Ivy.

nuget.org-proxy

This proxy repository accesses the NuGet Gallery. It is the default component repository used by the nuget package management tool used for .Net development.

A hosted repository is a repository that stores components in Nexus Repository as the authoritative location for these components.

By default, the repository manager ships with the following configured hosted repositories:

This hosted repository uses the maven2 repository format with a release version policy. It is intended to be the repository where your organization publishes internal releases. You can also use this repository for third-party components that are not available in external repositories and can therefore not be retrieved via a configured proxy repository. Examples of these components could be commercial, proprietary libraries such as an Oracle JDBC driver that may be referenced by your organization.

maven-snapshots

This hosted repository uses the maven2 repository format with a snapshot version policy. It is intended to be the repository where your organization publishes internal development versions, also known as snapshots.

nuget-hosted

This hosted repository is where your organization can publish internal releases in repository using the nuget repository format. You can also use this repository for third-party components that are not available in external repositories, that could potentially be proxied to gain access to the components.

A group repository combines multiple repositories, including other repository groups, into a single repository. Users can then rely on a single URL for their configuration needs, and administrators can continue to add more repositories and components to the repository group.

Sonatype Nexus Repository ships with the following repository groups:

maven-public

The maven-public group is a repository group of maven2 formatted repositories and combines the important external proxy repository for the Central Repository with the hosted repositories maven-releases and maven-snapshots. This allows you to expose the components of the Central Repository as well as your internal components in one single, simple-to-use repository and therefore URL.

nuget-group

This group combines the nuget formatted repositories nuget-hosted and nuget.org-proxy into a single repository for your .Net development with NuGet.