Can a program depend on a library during compilation but not runtime?

Question

I understand the difference between runtime and compile-time and how to differentiate between the two, but I just don\'t see the need to make a distinction between compile-t

Answer 1

Just ran into an issue that answers your question. servlet-api.jar is a transient dependency in my web project and is needed both at compile time and runtime. But servlet-api.jar is also included in my Tomcat library.

The solution here is to make servlet-api.jar in maven available only at compile time and not packaged in my war file so that it would not clash with the servlet-api.jar contained in my Tomcat library.

I hope this explains Compile time and Runtime dependency.