All classes from the same Java package must be in one and only one JAR file in the classpath. In Java 9 and later splitting the classes in a package across more than one JAR file causes a compile time error when those classes are required in module-info.java. In OSGI environments such as Eclipse plugins, split packages can lead to nondeterministic behavior.
If classes from the same package appear in Maven artifacts
with different group IDs or different artifact IDs,
it is easy to construct a classpath that
splits packages. This is a problem even if individual classes
do not overlap. For example, the google-cloud-vision Java API client
places protobufs in com.google.api.grpc:proto-google-cloud-vision-v1
and gRPC stubs in com.google.api.grpc:grpc-google-cloud-vision-v1.
Since both artifacts contain classes in the com.google.cloud.vision.v1 package,
these two artifacts cannot be used together after Java 8.
All classes from a single package, whatever its sources, should be published in a single Maven module with one group ID and one artifact ID. Do not publish different classes in the same package in separate Maven artifacts with different group IDs or artifact IDs.
For example, if the class com.google.i18n.Localization is in the artifact
com.google.i18n:i18n-utilities, then com.google.i18n.Strings
and com.google.i18n.Characters must also be in the artifact
com.google.i18n:i18n-utilities.
It is acceptable for a package and its subpackage to have different Maven coordinates.
For example, com.google.i18n.Localization can be in the artifact
com.google.i18n:i18n-utilities while com.google.i18n.charactersets.Latin1 is in
com.google.foo:i18n-charactersets.
It is also acceptable to bundle classes from both com.google.i18n and
com.google.i18n.charactersets in a single Maven module.
Similarly, it is fine to combine completely different packages such as
com.google.foo and org.example.bar in a single JAR file.
However, once any class from a package has been published under a certain
group ID and artifact ID, no other class in that package should ever use
a different group ID or artifact ID.
Finally, it is acceptable to publish the same package in Maven artifacts with different versions as long as the group ID and artifact ID remain the same. The Maven or Gradle dependency mediation algorithms ensure that no more than one such JAR file is added to the classpath.