When performing a release in maven, what should I do with the pom.xml.releaseBackup and release.properties files?

Question

When I execute mvn release:prepare, I end up with two new files, release.properties and pom.xml.releaseBackup, and when I execute mvn release:perform, those two files do not get removed.

I've read up about the maven release process, and I understand that these files are not removed, and I understand why.

What I can't find out is whether or not those files should be checked in, deleted, or ignored.

Answer 1

Oops, they're not left behind. I had a problem in my POM, and the release failed. After fixing the POM and redoing the release, the files disappeared.

Answer 2

You can also run

mvn release:clean

To remove any left-over files.