java - Compile, Provided, APK - Android dependency scope

Question

While adding new dependencies to android project especially in Android Studio in Dependencies there are three scope options Compile/Provided/APK.

What are the effects of choosing each one, when should we use them ? Besides what the name says.

EDIT:

"Properly handle 'provided' and 'package' scopes to do what they should be doing. 'provided' and 'package' cannot be used with Android Libraries, and will generate an error" .. this is from http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system

Answer 1

• provided - compile-time only dependency
• package - package-time only dependency
• compile - compile-time and package-time dependency

provided is commonly used for annotation processing based libraries. Usually these libraries are separated in two artifacts - "annotation" and "compiler". "compiler" is provided dependency because you do not need to use it in application, only for compilation; and "annotation" is compile dependency - it is used in application code and therefore compiles. Or generated code may require additional dependencies while your application may not. E.g. dagger dependencies configuration:

compile 'com.squareup.dagger:dagger:1.2.2'
provided 'com.squareup.dagger:dagger-compiler:1.2.2'