feat: automate deletion of stale snapshots

build.gradle

@@ -200,7 +200,10 @@ subprojects {
                 // But since the dependsOn is within the conditional, the dependency is not created for release versions
                 // so the publish in that case is never executed.
                 if (version.toString().endsWith('SNAPSHOT')) {
-                    dependsOn tasks.publish
+                    exec {
+                        workingDir project.projectDir
+                        commandLine 'bash', "${project.rootDir}/scripts/snapshot_management.sh", project.name, project.version
+                    }
                 }
                 doFirst {
                     if (!version.toString().endsWith('SNAPSHOT')) {

scripts/snapshot_management.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# This script manages the uploading of snapshots to the Maven Central snapshot repository, and deletion of the associated snapshots after a set retention time.
+set -e
+
+subproject=$1
+version=$2
+
+echo "Running $(basename $0) for subproject \"$subproject\" and version \"$version\""
+echo "Executing in directory = $(pwd)"
+
+zipfile=${subproject}.${version}.zip
+
+pushd build/local-repo
+zip -qr ${zipfile} *
+
+bearer_token=$(echo "$MAVEN_CENTRAL_PORTAL_TOKEN_USERNAME:$MAVEN_CENTRAL_PORTAL_TOKEN_PASSWORD" | base64)
+
+# We delete older snapshots before uploading the newest one to the project's snapshot repository on Maven Central.
+for deployments in $subproject; do
+getId=$(curl -s --request POST \
+  --header "Authorization: Bearer ${bearer_token}" \
+  'https://central.sonatype.com/api/v1/publisher/deployments/files')
+staleId=$(getId | jq -r '.deploymentIds')
+echo "id from old snapshot: $staleId"
+
+dropStale=$(curl --request DELETE \
+  --verbose \
+  --header "Authorization: Bearer ${bearer_token}" \
+  "https://central.sonatype.com/api/v1/publisher/deployments/{$staleId}")
+done
+
+# We publish to the snapshot repository automatically whenever this script is called, without manual intervention.
+answer=$(curl --request POST \
+  --verbose \
+  --header "Authorization: Bearer ${bearer_token}" \
+  --form bundle="@${zipfile}" \
+  'https://central.sonatype.com/api/v1/publisher/upload?publishingType=AUTOMATIC')
+
+echo "curl request answer: $answer"
+
+popd