<latest>0.0.48</latest>
The added line breaks Nexus's REST query API so that it always returns the version given in the latest element instead of the real latest released version. So, for example this query would always return version 0.0.48, if the latest element is in maven-metadata.xml file.
$ curl "http://<hostname>:<port>/nexus/service/local/artifact/maven/redirect?r=releases-repository-name&g=com.group&a=artifact-name&e=jar.md5&v=LATEST
To fix this, you can run the following command under the broken repository to remove all latest elements.
$ find . -name maven-metadata.xml -exec sed -i -r "/<latest>.+<\/latest>/d" \{\} \;
An alternative way to query the latest releases is the following.
$ curl "http://<hostname>:<port>/nexus/service/local/artifact/maven/redirect?r=releases-repository-name&g=com.group&a=artifact-name&e=jar.md5&v=RELEASE
This query works even with the latest element.
It seems that latest element is not affecting queries of the latest SNAPSHOTs.
For more information about this subject.
