maven 2 release plugin re-checking out all other SVN tags, not just current one being released

Question

I have a Maven 2 project that I am releasing. I've released it several times before over the years, and nothing much has changed structurally nor configuration-wise on it since the last time I released it (maven version all the same, plugin versions all still the same etc.).

However, I have just noticed that after executing release:prepare, and then running release:perform all tags are now being checked out of SVN, and not just the one we are releasing, and it's taking several hours to perform a release now (when it used to take max 30 mins).

My Subversion repository is set out in the standard way :

├─ branches
├─ tag
├─ trunk

Has the release plugin always done this and I've only just noticed it, or have I done something to encourage this?

The commands I am using are as follows:

mvn -DscmCommentPrefix=" [ maven-release-plugin refs #483 for version 2.8.0 ] " -DautoVersionSubmodules=true release:prepare
mvn -DscmCommentPrefix=" [ maven-release-plugin refs #483 for version 2.8.0 ] " -DautoVersionSubmodules=true release:perform

The only thing I can think of is that it might be the first time I am using the autoversion submodules switch, -DautoVersionSubmodules=true, could this be the problem?

Alternatively, is there a way around it, could I use some ignore tags?

Alternatively, have I cleared out maven's target/checkout working directory which had all the previous tags' checkouts in, and I don't need to worry because this will only happen this once, and next time it will only do deltas against the target/checkout directory?

Answer 1

It turns out this is due to this bug in the Maven release plugin : http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MRELEASE-526