ADDITIONAL SYSTEM INFORMATION :
The problem is system independent.

Tested on Debian 12.7 with:

* javac 1.8.0_422
* javac 23

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
Annotations with a retention of `CLASS` are a good example of optional dependencies:

* They are not useful at runtime.
* They are not useful, when compiling dependent projects. Unless those projects have compile-time tools that use those annotations, the annotations can be safely ignored.

The `javac` compiler, however generates a warning for each missing annotation, regardless of its retention:

Cannot find annotation method 'value()' in type 'foo.Bar': class file for foo.Bar not found

Due to this behavior, marking a library with `CLASS` annotations as an optional Maven/Gradle dependency generates unnecessary warnings to consumers and can cause compilation failures, when `-Xlint:all` is used together with `-Werror`:

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
1. Create a library A, with a `provided` (Maven) or `compileOnly` (Gradle) dependency on biz.aQute.bnd:biz.aQute.bnd.annotation:7.0.0,
2. Annotate an element of A with `@BaselineIgnore`.
3. Use library A in an application B.
4. Set the compiler options for B to `-Xlint:all` and `-Werror`

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
The application B compiles correctly
ACTUAL -
A compilation error due to a warning.

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------


---------- END SOURCE ----------

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
Currently there are several sub-optimal workarounds:

1. Library A can mark the annotation library as runtime dependency.
2. The application B can add the same annotation library to its compile only dependencies.
3. The application B can use `-Xlink:all,-classfile`.

FREQUENCY : always