"You don't have a SNAPSHOT project in the reactor projects list." when using Jenkins Maven release plugin

Question

I'm using SVN, Maven 3.0.3 on the latest version of Jenkins and the Maven Release plugin. I'm trying to use the Maven release plugin (through Jenkins) do a dry run and so am executing the options …

Executing Maven:  -B -f /scratch/jenkins/workspace/myproject/myproject/pom.xml -DdevelopmentVersion=53.0.0-SNAPSHOT -DreleaseVersion=52.0.0 -Dusername=***** -Dpassword=********* -DskipTests -P prod -Dresume=false -DdryRun=true release:prepare

But the dry run is dying with the error below …

[JENKINS] Archiving /scratch/jenkins/workspace/myproject/myproject/pom.xml to /home/evotext/hudson_home/jobs/myproject/modules/org.mainco.subco$myproject/builds/2013-11-18_16-09-14/archive/org.mainco.subco/myproject/52.0.0/myproject-52.0.0.pom
Waiting for Jenkins to finish collecting data
mavenExecutionResult exceptions not empty
message : Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-release-plugin:2.0:prepare (default-cli) on project myproject: You don't have a SNAPSHOT project in the reactor projects list.
cause : You don't have a SNAPSHOT project in the reactor projects list.
    Stack trace : 
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to execute goal  org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-release-plugin:2.0:prepare (default-cli) on project myproject: You don't have a SNAPSHOT project in the reactor projects list.
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:213)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:153)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:145)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:84)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:59)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleStarter.singleThreadedBuild(LifecycleStarter.java:183)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleStarter.execute(LifecycleStarter.java:161)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:320)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:156)
    at org.jvnet.hudson.maven3.launcher.Maven3Launcher.main(Maven3Launcher.java:117)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
    at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launchStandard(Launcher.java:329)
    at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:239)
    at org.jvnet.hudson.maven3.agent.Maven3Main.launch(Maven3Main.java:178)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
    at hudson.maven.Maven3Builder.call(Maven3Builder.java:129)
    at hudson.maven.Maven3Builder.call(Maven3Builder.java:67)
    at hudson.remoting.UserRequest.perform(UserRequest.java:118)
    at hudson.remoting.UserRequest.perform(UserRequest.java:48)
    at hudson.remoting.Request$2.run(Request.java:326)
    at hudson.remoting.InterceptingExecutorService$1.call(InterceptingExecutorService.java:72)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:262)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:744)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoFailureException: You don't have a SNAPSHOT project in the reactor projects list.
    at org.apache.maven.plugins.release.PrepareReleaseMojo.prepareRelease(PrepareReleaseMojo.java:219)
    at org.apache.maven.plugins.release.PrepareReleaseMojo.execute(PrepareReleaseMojo.java:181)
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultBuildPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultBuildPluginManager.java:101)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:209)
    ... 30 more
Caused by: org.apache.maven.shared.release.ReleaseFailureException: You don't have a SNAPSHOT project in the reactor projects list.
    at org.apache.maven.shared.release.phase.CheckPomPhase.execute(CheckPomPhase.java:111)
    at org.apache.maven.shared.release.phase.CheckPomPhase.simulate(CheckPomPhase.java:123)
    at org.apache.maven.shared.release.DefaultReleaseManager.prepare(DefaultReleaseManager.java:199)
    at org.apache.maven.shared.release.DefaultReleaseManager.prepare(DefaultReleaseManager.java:140)
    at org.apache.maven.shared.release.DefaultReleaseManager.prepare(DefaultReleaseManager.java:103)
    at org.apache.maven.plugins.release.PrepareReleaseMojo.prepareRelease(PrepareReleaseMojo.java:211)
    ... 33 more

My SVN checkout method is set to "Always checkout a fresh copy" and I have a snapshot version in question in my snapshot repository, but not in my release repository. Is there a way I can get the "reactor projects list" to look at my snapshot repo?

Edit: I'm including the snippet of my pom where the project gets its version -- it inherits it from a parent

    <parent>
            <artifactId>subco</artifactId>
            <groupId>org.mainco.subco</groupId>
            <version>52.0.0</version>
    </parent>

Answer 1

You're trying to release an artifact that's not a snapshot. That means your artifact's version number is something like 3.0.3. That version number implies its already been released. You can't release a release. There would be no changes in between and therefore no point.

You're only supposed to release SNAPSHOT versions. That means your version number would be like 3.0.3-SNAPSHOT.