mvn release:prepare not committing changes to pom.xml

Question

I'm trying to release a Jenkins plugin (stashNotifier) with Maven and face a problem with the release plugin.

mvn clean release:prepare

runs to completion without errors but fails to commit the changed pom.xml in my local git repository. Even though it does tag the HEAD of the branch on which I'm trying to release version 1.0.2. This is what my local branch looks like before preparing the release

* df60768 (HEAD, origin/develop, develop) upgraded parent pom to version 1.498
* 792766a added distribution management section to pom.xml and amended readme.md 

and this is what it looks like after

* df60768 (HEAD, tag: stashNotifier-1.0.2, origin/develop, develop) upgraded parent pom to version 1.498
* 792766a added distribution management section to pom.xml and amended readme.md 

Unfortunately, the pom.xml already contains the next development version, which in turn causes a subsequent release:perform to release that snapshot version.

From the command output of maven, it almost looks like it's omitting the git commit command:

[INFO] Checking in modified POMs...
[INFO] Executing: /bin/sh -c cd /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier && git add -- pom.xml
[INFO] Working directory: /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier
[INFO] Executing: /bin/sh -c cd /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier && git status
[INFO] Working directory: /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier
[INFO] Tagging release with the label stashNotifier-1.0.2...
[INFO] Executing: /bin/sh -c cd /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier && git tag -F /var/folders/dr/xxbtyycs1z9dl2_snlj87zrh0000gn/T/maven-scm-678409272.commit stashNotifier-1.0.2
[INFO] Working directory: /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier
[INFO] Executing: /bin/sh -c cd /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier && git push [email protected]:jenkinsci/stashnotifier-plugin.git stashNotifier-1.0.2
[INFO] Working directory: /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier
[INFO] Executing: /bin/sh -c cd /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier && git ls-files
[INFO] Working directory: /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier
[INFO] Transforming 'Stash Notifier'...
[INFO] Not removing release POMs
[INFO] Checking in modified POMs...
[INFO] Executing: /bin/sh -c cd /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier && git add -- pom.xml
[INFO] Working directory: /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier
[INFO] Executing: /bin/sh -c cd /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier && git status
[INFO] Working directory: /Users/gruetter/Dropbox/stashNotifier
[INFO] Release preparation complete.

I'm running maven 3.0.5 (without --dry-run or -DpushChanges=false). Here are the relevant (I think) parts of my effective pom:

[...]

<scm>
   <connection>scm:git:git://github.com/jenkinsci/stashnotifier-plugin.git</connection>
   <developerConnection>scm:git:[email protected]:jenkinsci/stashnotifier-plugin.git</developerConnection>
   <url>https://github.com/jenkinsci/stashnotifier-plugin</url>
</scm>

[...]

<distributionManagement>
   <repository>
      <id>maven.jenkins-ci.org</id>
      <url>http://maven.jenkins-ci.org:8081/content/repositories/releases/</url>
   </repository>
   <snapshotRepository>
      <id>maven.jenkins-ci.org</id>
      <url>http://maven.jenkins-ci.org:8081/content/repositories/snapshots</url>
   </snapshotRepository>
   <site>
     <id>github-pages</id>
     <url>gitsite:[email protected]/jenkinsci/maven-site.git:plugin-parent/stashNotifier</url>
   </site>
</distributionManagement>

[...]

<properties>
   [...]
   <maven-release-plugin.version>2.2.2</maven-release-plugin.version>
   [...]
</properties>

[...]

<build>
   [...]
   <pluginManagement>
      <plugins>
         [...]
         <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.2.2</version>
         </plugin>
         [...]
   </pluginManagement>

   [...]

   <plugins>
      [...]
      <plugin>
         <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>2.2.2</version>
         <configuration>
            <goals>deploy</goals>
         </configuration>
      </plugin>
      [...]
   </plugins>
</build>

What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance for your insights!

Answer 1

I solved the issue on my side (running maven 3.0.5) by updating the git scm provider dependency, not the release plugin version:

<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>2.4.2</version>
      <dependencies>
        <dependency>
          <groupId>org.apache.maven.scm</groupId>
          <artifactId>maven-scm-provider-gitexe</artifactId>
          <version>1.8.1</version>
        </dependency>
       </dependencies>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

The git scm 1.8.1 version correctly makes the git commit (tested with the prepare and rollback goals).

EDIT: Different versions of maven-release-plugin and maven-scm-provider-gitexe may be required depending on your environment. See the comments for more discussion.