release:prepare fails when checking in modified POMs of a multi-modules project

Same issue for us...
We have a lot of parallel eclipse projects, the master referencing all the others. We try to convince management that we should use Maven, but since the Release-Plugin obviously isn't able to handle other than trivial eclipse-Projects (that is, parallel multi-module projects), we would have to manually change about 100 POMs per release.... which isnt't a good argument for management

And there is another point: release:prepare tells
[INFO] Full run would be tagging D:\Work\Maven-Test\cvs-test\ebtest\eb build\build with label: 'EBTEST_V1_00_00,
which implies for me that only the master module would be tagged.
But what about the other parallel projects? We would need to be able to specify, what exactly should be tagged
(not only the folders where the root POMs of the projects are (e.g. eb build\build, ebbase\build), but also the parent folder (eb build, ebbase)...

I think this issue is linked to MRELEASE-261.
It's not a duplicate of MRELEASE-6.

I 'm still facing errors when trying to release a parent project that have some modules in another folder :

\parent
\moduleA
\moduleB

I heavily use multi module projects and do not face any problems.
So let's start with getting info about your environment situation.

.) Do you release all your projects at once from the parent module?

.) do you have a pom (build pom) in c:\javadev\prj\myproject\ ?

.) Do you invoke
$> mvn release:prepare
on the commandline or run the goal from inside eclipse?

.) which version of maven and the release-plugin do u use?

.) do your poms contain a correct <relativePath> in the parent section?

If nobody can answer Marks questions I'd have to close this as incomplete. There are enough multi-module projects who can release without a problem.

No feedback from users, closing it as incomplete

hi!
we face the same problem with the same error message ..

message : Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-release-plugin:2.0:prepare (default-cli) on project basic_module: An error is occurred in the checkin process: C:\Jenkins\workspace\basic Module\basic\pom.xml was not contained in C:\Jenkins\workspace\basic Module\basic_module
cause : An error is occurred in the checkin process: C:\Jenkins\workspace\basic Module\basic\pom.xml was not contained in C:\Jenkins\workspace\basic Module\basic_module
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 basic_module: An error is occurred in the checkin process: C:\Jenkins\workspace\basic Module\basic\pom.xml was not contained in C:\Jenkins\workspace\basic Module\basic_module
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:217)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:153)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:145)

and so perhaps it makes sense that I answer your questions:

• YES we want to release our multi-module project by running release:perform on the pom.xml from the (parent) root project called "basic_module"!! (which is not the parent project itself, just a project so declare the projects who belong together by module declaration)
• YES we have a pom.xml in the basic_module project
• we run the release:prepare statement by just one click on the GUI supported "M2 Release Plugin" for Jenkins
• Maven release plugin: 2.0 / maven installation on machine with running Jenkins server: 3.0.4
• THATS the point where its getting interesting I think. what in your opinion is a "correct <relativePath>" declaration? in fact we use CVS as SCM and we have to declare the relative module declarations in a bit specialized way:

<modules>
<module>../basic</module>
<module>../basic_helper</module>
</modules>

Moreover our <relativePath> declarations uses this syntax to come out to the parent folder =>

<relativePath>../parentProject</relativePath>

... whereas - as you see - we use different projects for our PARENT project on the one hand (inheritance) and our project that declares multi-project modules (reactor) on the other hand.
Is this probably a problem for the release plugin??

Please, first lock the version of the maven-release-plugin to the most recent release (currently 2.3.2) to check if this is still an issue.

thx for the fast answer!

I tried it again with the newest version of the release plugin. And I also adapted my execution goals to be sure, that the error doesn't "just" come across the release:perform process.

so now I really only try the following execution:

Executing Maven: -B -f C:\Jenkins\workspace\basic Module\basic_module\pom.xml -DdevelopmentVersion=0.0.2-SNAPSHOT -DreleaseVersion=0.0.1 -Dresume=false -Dmaven.scm.provider.cvs.implementation=cvs_native release:prepare -DcommitByProject=true

now I get following error:

mavenExecutionResult exceptions not empty
message : Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-release-plugin:2.3.2:prepare (default-cli) on project basic_module: The scm url is invalid.

• Unknown transport: pserver
  cause : The scm url is invalid.
• Unknown transport: pserver
  Stack trace :
  org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-release-plugin:2.3.2:prepare (default-cli) on project basic_module: The scm url is invalid.
• Unknown transport: pserver
  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)

I've already read an other reporting of this error anywhere on the net.. so obviously this problem isn't fixed at all, even on the prepare goal :-/

It's kind of funny, because he writes that the SCM URL is invalid BUT on the other hand the checkin of the changed versioninfo in the pom from 0.0.1-SNAPSHOT to 0.0.1 is commited indeed.

UPDATE:
Now I tried it again without the commitByProject setted. Then I run again in the error: C:\Jenkins\workspace\basic Module\basic\pom.xml was not contained in C:\Jenkins\workspace\basic Module\basic_module
So to prevent the "was not contained in" error the "commitByProject" parameter works fine, but everything concerning the SCM checkin (especially the tagging, also on the prepare goal) is still failing at all!!

I've worked with cvs + maven-release-plugin recently, so I know that it will work. Not sure what you found on the net, but it looks to me you're trusting the wrong resources. Have a look at http://maven.apache.org/scm/cvs.html and make sure that the URL starts with 'scm:'.
IIRC you should be able validate that URL by just calling mvn scm:validate in the execution-folder.

I successfully validated my SCM URL this moment.
I think it just fails because of the "flat structure" topic...
Or have u worked with such flat structures successfully too already?

Patch contributed by Hannes Kogler

thanx for attaching my patch, but how will the release-process will take place now?

moreover there are several other issues who rely on the same problem:
http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MRELEASE-633
http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MRELEASE-516
http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MRELEASE-261

.. now flat directory structure should also be supported for Tagging/Branching aso. (in combination with CVS too!)! just using the commitByProject flag!

PLEASE just make a NEW RELEASE (2.4) of THE PLUGIN with those changes to honor the time (and money) spent into these issues!
Who has RELEASE rights for the Maven Release Plugin???