How to use properly mvn release:prepare?

Question

I try this command (with dryrun to test) on my Maven project :

mvn release:clean release:prepare -DdryRun=true -DgenerateBackupPoms=false -Dtag=solocal-refentreprive-2.1-RC02 -DreleaseVersion=2.1-RC02 -DdevelopmentVersion=2.1-SNAPSHOT

At the end, the build is success, but I have (in my commit) many pom.next / pom.tag and pom.backUp...

I don't when then (-DgenerateBackupPoms=false), if I use without dryrun. I don't want push this pom...

Answer 1

Assuming you accept the defaults release:prepare performs the following

1) build and check all tests pass

2) check there are no SNAPSHOT dependencuies

3) change the version from x.x-SNAPSHOT to x.x

4) push to a tag in SCM

5) change the version for the next iteration to x.(x+1)-SNAPSHOT

So your pom.backUp is the original pom, your pom.tag is from step 3 and your pom.next is from step 5.

You can clean up with a mvn release:clean which will be done automatically after a release:perform see maven-release