Layouts are mandatory only for the remote repository cache configuration, however, you can also specify the layout of the remote repository itself.
If the remote repository itself uses a different layout than the one chosen for the cache, all requests to the remote target are translated from the path of the cache layout to the path of the remote layout.
For example, suppose you have a remote repository that stores its artifacts according to the Maven 1 convention. You can configure the cache of this repository to use the Maven 2 layout but set the Remote Layout Mapping to Maven 1. This way, the repository cache handles Maven 2 requests and artifact storage, while outgoing requests to the remote repository are translated to the Maven 1 convention.
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