I cannot find a solution for activating some Maven profile on release:prepare and release:perform (both) goals. Something like this:
<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>2.2.1</version>
  <configuration>
    <useReleaseProfile>false</useReleaseProfile>
    <goals>deploy</goals>
    <arguments>-Pmy-release</arguments>
  </configuration>
</plugin>
just doesn't work. I know that releaseProfiles setting works only during release:perform so I just though that arguments setting is exactly what I want, but my-profile profile is not active during the execution. Am I doing something wrong?
release:perform will fork a new Maven instance to build the checked-out project. This new Maven instance will use the same system configuration and Maven profiles used by the one running the release:perform goal.
The main aim of the maven-release plugin is to provide a standard mechanism to release project artifacts outside the immediate development team. The plugin provides basic functionality to create a release and to update the project's SCM accordingly.
Maven SCM supports Maven plugins (for example maven-release-plugin) and other tools by providing them with a common API for source code management operations. You can look at the list of SCMs for more information on using Maven SCM with your favorite SCM tool.
This looks like a duplicate question. Please take a look at this question, it has an answer. maven release plugin ignores releaseProfile
Basically version 2.2.1 of the release plugin adds a releaseProfiles parameter that will allow you to define the profiles to enable during release.
http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-release-plugin/examples/perform-release.html
Unfortunately, it looks like there's a bug that will prohibit it from doing what you want...
Edit
One thing that I have used in this case is not using the -P argument, but rather triggering the profile through an environment setting using -Denv=release. Then in the POM, I have the profile activation based on the value of env. This has always worked for me.
-Darguments="-PmyProfile" seems to do the job.
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