This exists because httpclientandroidlib uses android.util.Log. When run somewhere other than a device, this library is stubbed out. The alternatives — code transformation to switch between org.apache.http and ch.boye.httpclientandroidlib, and fixing a transformed version — are even less pleasant.

Please forgive me.

The command mvn deploy uploads the built jars to the mvn-repo branch of github.com/mozilla-services/android-sync. You need to have administrator access to that git repository, and something like the following in your $M2_REPO/settings.xml to enable uploading:

<settings>
  ...
  <servers>
    <server>
      <id>github</id>
      <username>YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME</username>
      <password>YOUR-GITHUB-PASSWORD</password>
    </server>
  </servers>
  ...
</settings>

To refer to this Maven repository, you should use something like the following in your project pom.xml:

<project>
  ...
  <repositories>
    <repository>
      <id>android-sync-mvn-repo</id>
        <url>https://raw.github.com/mozilla-services/android-sync/mvn-repo/</url>
        <snapshots>
          <enabled>true</enabled>
          <updatePolicy>always</updatePolicy>
        </snapshots>
        <releases>
          <enabled>true</enabled>
          <updatePolicy>always</updatePolicy>
        </releases>
    </repository>
  </repositories>
  ...
</project>